Holocaust survivor who helped design Adass Israel Synagogue died just hours before it was firebombed

In a merciful twist of fate, a Holocaust survivor who helped design the Adass Israel Synagogue died just hours before it was torched in a terror attack, sparing his family from telling him the devastating news.

A Holocaust survivor who helped design a Ripponlea synagogue torched in a terror attack died just two hours before arsonists set it alight in a merciful twist of fate.

As the grieving family of the 95-year-old grandfather sat by his body in the early hours of Friday morning, they were hit with a second round of devastating news.

The synagogue he had dedicated countless hours to redesigning and rebuilding after a 1995 firebombing had been destroyed once again, in another deliberate arson attack.

Melbourne Holocaust survivor and architect Erwin, who helped design the Adass Israel Synagogue, died just two hours before the firebombing attack. Picture: Supplied

“We are thankful that we never had to tell him of such news,” his grandson, Lior, 26, said as the family sat down with the Herald Sun on Sunday.

Devastated by the escalation in Jewish hatred, and furious at “government inaction”, granddaughter Ariana, 30, said “there needs to be more than just condemnation and words”.

While son-in-law Michael, fed up with being forced to fear for his family’s safety, accused the Albanese and Allan governments of “fanning the furnace of anti-Semitism”.

“Their inaction, ongoing anti-Israel, anti-Jewish rhetoric, has caused this and their continued inaction is fuelling these barbarians to continue to create the circumstances of Nazi Europe,” he said.

“This fire has caused major psychological injuries to an entire congregation, in fact, an entire population of Jews within this city and this country who are terrified.”

The Prime Minister and Premier have condemned the attack as “anti-Semitic” and “evil”, pledging funding to the rebuild and diverting police resources to catching the culprits.

Erwin – whose family have chosen not to publish his last name – was a meticulous and talented architect who arrived in Melbourne in 1957 after fleeing war-torn Hungary.

Erwin arrived in Melbourne in 1957 after fleeing war-torn Hungary. Picture: Supplied

As a teenage boy in 1944, his father was seized from his young family and sent to Auschwitz; never to see his children again.

Erwin, his mother and his siblings, were rounded up and forced into a Jewish ghetto in central Budapest – the half way point to extermination camps – as the Nazis spread their reign of terror across Europe.

After facing years of anti-Semitism, which forced him and his siblings to change their last name at university, Erwin finally made it to Australian shores – deemed a safe haven for

Holocaust survivors.

Determined to build a new life, and give back to the Victorian community, he began designing and building countless homes, synagogues and mikvahs (ritual bathhouses).

In 1995, as the Adass community woke to the shocking news of a firebombing, described then in a newspaper article as a “devastating strike at the very core of the Jewish existence”, Erwin snapped into action. His attention to detail and determination to fire proof the building gave the synagogue its “strong bones”, his family said.

Erwin was determined to build a new life in Australia, designing and building countless homes, synagogues and mikvahs. Picture: Supplied

His daughters Suzanne and Michelle believe Friday’s disturbing arson attack, which is now being investigated by counter terrorism forces, may have been a message from their beloved father amid the rise in anti-Semitism.

“When I heard the news I thought: history is repeating itself,” Michelle said.

“We’ve been warned, and warned, and this seems to be the next step.

“Is he sending us a message?”

Lior said his grandfather, a private and humble man, refused to “burden his family” with details of the brutality of his childhood.

“But now he can’t protect us from this,” he said.

“It’s up to us, and there’s no hiding from it.”

Originally published as Holocaust survivor who helped design Adass Israel Synagogue died just hours before it was firebombed