Australian Holocaust survivor saved by gas chamber malfunction dies aged 98

Australia Broadcast Center

27-05-2025

Australian Holocaust survivor Yvonne Engelman, who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, has died aged 98.
Yvonne died peacefully, after a short illness, surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Funeral service attendees overfilled the chapel, pouring out onto the street to celebrate her life on Monday night.
The founding member of the Sydney Jewish Museum was remembered for her fight to stand up for what is right in the face of adversity.
Every week for the past 32 years, Mrs Engelman volunteered at the Sydney Jewish Museum to share her story to thousands.
Her mission: "So it will never happen again".
Mrs Engelman was born in 1927, in Dovhe, a farming village in Czechoslovakia, where her family lived for many generations.
In 1944, the teenager, an only child, and her parents were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, after being rounded up with other Jews in Czechoslovakia.
She promised her father that she would survive, a story she shared with the world over the years.
"My father said to me, 'I don't know where we are going, but I'm sure it's not a holiday,'" she said.
"'You have to promise me one thing: that you will survive.' I said, 'Of course I will survive.'
"They went to the left and I went to the right, and that was the last time I saw my parents."
Yvonne was the only member of her family to survive.
The 14-year-old had her head shaved and was stripped of her clothing before she was ushered into a room with showers, where she was locked up all day and night.
But the gas was malfunctioning, forcing her capturers to put her to work, Mrs Engelman said.
"We worked 10 hours daily with a great fear that maybe we would be the next [gas chamber] victims," she said.
Auschwitz left its mark as one of the most infamous camps of the Holocaust, killing 1.1 million Jews of the six million who were murdered by Nazis in German-occupied Europe.
She said she was sent to work in a factory in Germany as allies crept closer to victory.
Once the war was over, Mrs Engelman made the decision to move to a country sponsoring orphans.
"I had a look at the map, I wanted to get away as far as I possibly can from Europe, so I chose Australia."
In 1949, in Sydney, Yvonne married another Holocaust survivor, John Engelman.
Theirs was the first Holocaust survivors wedding to take place in Australia.
Yvonne was described by friends as someone who "lived life as a celebration".
She was grateful for everything, with a strong will and resolute spirit, her colleagues from the Sydney Jewish Museum said.
"She treasured her family and they treasured her; she was their centre and their heart."
Yvonne leaves a unique legacy, having inspired countless people of all ages and faiths with a message of tolerance and resilience.