The director of the Holocaust Museum in Seredi, Martin Korčok, received sad news on January 3. Joe Veselsky, who was probably the oldest survivor of the Holocaust originally from Slovakia, died at the age of 107 and at the same time one of the oldest anti-fascist fighters. “He celebrated his 107th birthday on October 20, 2025!” he added on Facebook.
Joe Veselsky was born on October 20, 1918 in Trnava. He finished high school in 1937 and got a job at Všeobecna banka in Bratislava. During the years 1943-1944, the bank was also one of the preparatory centers of the Slovak National Uprising. As a convinced democrat, he was inclined towards the Democratic Party and after the fall of Banská Bystrica, he fought in Bohdan Chmelnický’s partisan brigade until March 1945.
The director of the museum stated that Veselsky lost his parents and brother in the Auschwitz concentration camp. “He was informed about their fate by former classmate Alfréd Wetzler (1918 – 1988). Joe joined the anti-fascist resistance and fought in the Slovak National Uprising. After the war, he received the Medal for Bravery and the Resistance Cross, 1st class,” added Korčok.
“In 1948, he and his wife decided to emigrate. They started a new life in Ireland. He continued to develop his passion for table tennis. After an active career, he founded the Irish Table Tennis Association, of which he became chairman for life. In civilian life he dealt in Swiss watches and later diamonds. At the age of 97, he became the oldest university student at Trinity College, where he received the honorary degree of “Master of Arts,” he reported in the status.
