Holocaust survivor dies age 100 leaving behind his twin sisters who he was separated from by Nazis: ‘What a life. What a legacy’

• Holocaust survivor Phillip Maisel died on Monday at the age of 100
• Mr Maisel volunteered at Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust centre for 30 years 

A Holocaust survivor has died just weeks after his 100th birthday – leaving behind his twin sister who he was separated from during the war. 

Loved ones said Phillip Maisel, a well-known volunteer at Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre, passed away on Monday.

Mr Maisel is survived by his sister and fellow survivor of the Nazi regime, Bella. 

‘What a mensch,’ one mate said, using a Yiddish word that means a person of integrity. ‘What a life.’ 

Holocaust survivor Phillip Maisel has died at the age of 100

Phillip (right) with his sister Bella, a fellow survivor of the Nazis in WWII, pictured in 1929

A funeral for Mr Maisel will be held on Wednesday. 

While volunteering at the Holocaust Centre, he recorded the testimonies of hundreds of survivors. 

‘Each testimony of survival is a miracle in itself – earning Phillip the nickname ‘the Keeper of Miracles’,’ the centre wrote. 

He was captured by the Nazis in 1943, and would spend the next two years suffering in a labor camps across Estonia, Poland and Germany.

Mr Maisel was 22 when he and his fellow prisoners were liberated in 1945.

‘Knowing how cruel life was during the Holocaust, I didn’t know if anybody in my family survived. Life is empty,’ he told The Sydney Morning Herald, reflecting on his liberation.

‘You have freedom, but freedom without anybody around you. It makes the freedom extremely difficult to accept.’ 

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