Resilience and love: Inge Woolf’s legacy

Finishing her memoir was Holocaust Centre of NZ founder Inge Woolf’s last wish, and the drive to do so consumed her final weeks.

She found out she was dying in November 2020, and took the news in a very matter-of-fact way, her daughter Deb Hart says.

“But after contemplating the situation, she told me she was sad that she would not finish the book telling her life story. So I jumped in, and volunteered to complete it for her – and she liked that idea.”

Woolf had started the book in 2010, after a trip to Europe where she spoke at the University of Vienna about her life.

She had worked on it, on and off, over the years since. When Hart looked at what she had done, the layout of the book was there, and plans for the chapters, but big chunks of Woolf’s life were missing. 

“The incompleteness of it was because my mother’s life was very busy. She was always about living, rather than writing about living. To finish it though was going to take a bit of work.”

Hart, a lawyer-consultant and the current board chair of the Holocaust Centre of NZ, had not written a book before, but she threw herself into the project.

It did not take long for her to realise that while Woolf had intended her story as something for her family, it deserved a wider audience. 

When she told her mother she would get it published, and into all the main book stores, Woolf laughed and said that meant it was a real Woolf project then. 

“But my mother went downhill quite quickly, and while we kept working on the book, it became clear that she was unlikely to see the final manuscript. 

“David Zwartz, who took on the editor’s role, suggested she could see the cover of the book. So we were able to get a cover designed for her to see before she died [in 2021], and she knew then it would be finished.”

That original cover eventually morphed into a different version, although some elements were retained. 

The reason for the change was Hart’s desire to reflect the forward focussed nature of Woolf’s narrative, and the positive things that came with her move to New Zealand in the 1950s.

Woolf’s story began in the shadow of the Holocaust. She was born to a well-off Jewish family in Vienna in 1934. After the Germans occupied Austria in 1938, her family fled – first to Prague in Czechoslovakia, and then to England, daringly via Berlin.

Her father served in the British army during the war, while Woolf and her mother lived in various places around England and Scotland. Life was hard, but they had survived, unlike many of their relatives who died in the Holocaust.

Woolf’s father died at just 49 in the mid 1950s, and she, along with her mother and younger brother, emigrated to New Zealand to reunite with several of her uncles.

In New Zealand, she married photographer Ronald Woolf. They had two children, Hart and former Wellington councillor Simon Woolf, and built a successful, and highly regarded photography business.

When her husband was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in 1987, Woolf continued to run the business with her son. She also involved herself in work for organisations such as WIZO, Zonta, and Arthritis New Zealand.

But it was an act of antisemitism in New Zealand that determined the path of her later years. 

In 2004, the Jewish section of Wellington’s Makara Cemetery was desecrated, with 90 headstones knocked over, and a chapel burned down. One of the damaged headstones belonged to Woolf’s husband.

Hart says her mother was devastated, but realised there was work to be done to combat antisemitism, discrimination, and hatred in New Zealand.

“She felt a responsibility to New Zealand, as it had given her so much. So, at a time when most people would be retiring, she threw herself into setting up the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand.

“With some other like-minded people, such as Hanka and George Pressburg, Stephen Sedley and Irene Adler, they set to work, and together they build something that is a treasure for New Zealand.”

From humble beginnings, the Holocaust Centre has grown exponentially. It has moved into new premises, and employed staff, the events and programmes it organises have got bigger and bigger, and now the establishment of another centre in Auckland is underway.

Woolf’s work with the Holocaust Centre was an example of how if you think you can do something good, and throw yourself into it, you can, Hart says. 

“My mother wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work on the Holocaust Centre, and its vision. It’s inspiring, and, ultimately, the message of the book is all about moving forward, and getting on with life.

“The story reminds us that Holocaust survivors were not always old, even though we tend to think they were. People were young and sexy, with their lives in front of them. 

“They were real people, who were so impacted by what happened that they always faced forward, and just kept on going. It was only later that many, like my mother, realised they needed to tell their stories to new generations.”

Leaving a legacy for the Holocaust Centre was important to Woolf, and her children promised they would make sure there was a legacy. 

Hart says the book is that legacy, so she and her brother have funded it, and the proceeds will all go to the Holocaust Centre.

But they are also asking people if they want to buy a copy for schools, and donate to help teach it, and other stories like it, in schools, she says.

“It’s an opportunity for people who like the vision my mother had – to tell these types of stories, especially in schools – to be a part of it, and to help with getting the people in there to do it.”

Inge Woolf’s memoir – Resilience: A Story of Persecution, Escape, Survival and Triumph – was launched on April 11. It is now available from the Holocaust Centre at https://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/store/p19/Resilience.html, and also at booksellers around the country.