Metzger pays respects to killed Holocaust survivor

By MATTHEW WAGNER
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger attended this week the funeral of Katherine Schweitzer, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor who was brutally murdered in her Sydney Australia home on December 27. Metzger, in Australia for a Chabad function, decided to attend the funeral of the widow, who was strangled to death and dumped in garbage bin by an unknown assailant. According to Australian news media, police have no clue why Schweitzer, described as timid and kind by her neighbors, was killed. There were no signs of robbery. Schweitzer lost her entire family in the Holocaust, joined the Zionist resistance movement during the war, fled as a refugee with her husband to Australia when her native Hungary was invaded by the Soviets in 1956, then lived a quiet life notable for her generous but unheralded support for good causes. She had no children or other relatives in Australia. Her estate, worth several million dollars, was left to Jewish charities, Australian press said.