Holocaust survivor Josef Veselsky, who lived in hiding with the resistance in the Carpathian Mountains during World War II and later became Ireland’s oldest person, has died in Dublin at the age of 107.
Irish media reported that Veselsky was believed to be the oldest person in the country. His grandson, Nicholas Brown, said Veselsky would be remembered as a figure “larger than life,” a kind and generous man who always made time to listen and speak with people from all walks of life.
Veselsky was born in October 1918 in Trnava, on the same day the Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed. His father, Maximilian, later returned to Bratislava after emigrating to New York with two of his sisters. Born Josef Weiss, Veselsky grew up in a religious family but later described himself as an atheist.
During World War II, as the Nazis began mass arrests of Jews, his mother, Berta, urged him to change his name to “something a bit more Slovak.” Veselsky narrowly avoided an encounter with Adolf Eichmann while meeting representatives of the Jewish community. He joined the Czech resistance in the Carpathian Mountains and survived the war.
His parents and older brother were murdered at Auschwitz, an event that left what he later described as an “indelible mark” on his life.
After the war, Veselsky served as secretary to a minister in the Czechoslovak government. Fearing for his safety after the communists came to power in 1948, he decided to leave the country. He initially planned to emigrate to Australia, but his daughter was too ill for the long sea journey. On the advice of friends, Veselsky and his wife, Katharina, moved to Ireland in 1949 and settled there permanently.
Over a life shaped by the aftermath of two world wars, Veselsky built a career importing Swiss watches and later Japanese pearls. He was also deeply involved in sports, serving for more than 20 years as captain of national table tennis teams in both Czechoslovakia and Ireland.
He spoke Czech, Slovak and German, and spoke Hungarian with his wife. Despite his business success, he maintained a socialist worldview.
Brown told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that his grandfather learned only late in life the full details of his parents’ and brother’s deportation to Auschwitz.
“He was deeply disturbed at first to see it written down, when they were taken, where they were taken and when they were murdered,” Brown said. “He cried then, and my father had never seen him cry. For him, it was a kind of closure and relief, to know exactly what happened.”
Veselsky played a central role in developing table tennis in Ireland and was later named lifelong honorary president of the Irish Table Tennis Association. In recognition of his legacy, the Joe Veselsky Award was established to honor achievements in Irish table tennis administration.
Even in advanced age, Veselsky remained remarkably active. In 2010, at age 91, he began taking external courses in history and humanities at Trinity College Dublin, becoming the oldest student in the institution’s history. In 2016, Trinity awarded him an honorary master of arts degree, at a ceremony that also honored writer J.P. Donleavy, physicist Prof. Peter Higgs and then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
In its citation, the college praised Veselsky as “a loyal citizen of both his homeland and his adopted country” and a sportsman of exceptional leadership, calling his life story “an extraordinary tale of courage and perseverance.”
Veselsky is survived by his children, Peter and Kate, and by a legacy that continues to inspire the table tennis community in Ireland, Europe and beyond.