Ady Wander, gentle Holocaust survivor, dies at 89

Ady Wander, who passed away on 12 November at the age of 89, leaves only 15 remaining Holocaust survivors in Johannesburg, and only 12 still active enough to participate in Holocaust memorial gatherings. 

Wander, originally known as Abba Adol Vanda, was born on 20 January 1936 in Vishniks, Bukovina. 

His parents were forced by authorities to name him “Adolf”, a marker of the growing antisemitism that would soon engulf their lives. During the war, his family was among 55 Jewish families taken from the town of Vishniks. 

They were deported to the Copaigorod Ghetto in Ukraine, where several thousand Jews were imprisoned under extreme conditions. Of those 55 families, only five people survived the Holocaust: Wander, his parents, a man, and a woman. 

One day in the ghetto, the authorities asked for a volunteer capable of fitting windows in a local school building. Wander’s father stepped forward, believing his skills might offer their family a chance of survival. 

As a result, Wander and his parents were taken out of the ghetto and housed with a Ukrainian woman named Baba Mestra. By repairing the windows and maintaining the building, Wander’s father secured their safety. 

Wander credits this for the family’s survival, saying that if they had remained in the ghetto, they wouldn’t have lived. 

After the war ended, the family attempted to reach Israel, but struggled due to immigration restrictions. Wander’s father purchased three bottles of whiskey and used them to bribe a railway official overseeing a train transporting tanks from Ukraine toward Germany. 

The official agreed to hide Wander and his parents under one of the tanks, instructing them to disembark at Chernivtsi. They travelled this way for a week before reaching the city, where they stayed until arrangements could be made to move further west. From Constanța in Romania, they eventually secured passage by boat and arrived in Israel in 1950. 

Israel was facing a housing crisis at the time, and there was nowhere for new immigrants to live. Wander’s family therefore spent four years in the Athlit transit camp near Haifa before moving into newly constructed public housing, known as sikunim. 

Wander grew up there, and later served in the Israel Defense Forces, becoming a sergeant major. 

In 1967, following the Six-Day War, he travelled to South Africa with his wife, who was born in the country and was working in Israel for the Designers’ Federation. 

The couple settled in South Africa. Wander worked in the dry-cleaning industry and later in the motor trade, including at Nissan from 1987 until 2009, continuing for several more years until his retirement. 

Wander was an active member of the Johannesburg Holocaust survivor community, with his kind and gentle nature touching the hearts of all who met him. 

Wander is survived by his wife, Rebecca, daughter, Sarah, and granddaughter, Leora.