Josef Veselsky, Holocaust survivor, table tennis champ and Ireland’s oldest man, dies at 107
Former captain of the Irish and Czechoslovakian table tennis teams immigrated to Ireland in 1949, after spending the war years in the resistance movement
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Josef Veselsky, a Holocaust survivor, twice national table tennis captain and Ireland’s oldest man, has died at 107 years old.
Born Josef Weiss in 1918 in Trnava, a city in present-day Slovakia, Veselsky immigrated with his wife, Katarina, to Dublin, Ireland, in 1949, following the communist coup d’état in his home country, The Irish Times reported.
His parents, brother, and sister-in-law had been killed in the Holocaust after being deported to the Auschwitz death camp.
After watching his loved ones being forced into a cattle car, Veselsky escaped the same fate by changing his last name and joining the Czech resistance movement in the Carpathian Mountains, according to The Irish Times, for which he was later awarded the Order of the Slovak National Uprising.
In Ireland, despite speaking little English, Veselsky made a living as an importer of Swiss watches and other jewelry. On the side, he made a name for himself as the captain of Ireland’s national table tennis team, a role he reprised from his time serving as the captain of the Czechoslovakian national team.
His achievements in table tennis were recognized by the Slovak Republic, which in 2021 awarded him the Order of the White Double Cross for his services to sport. In 2025, he was the recipient of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Badge of Honor for his outstanding contribution to European table tennis.
Veselsky’s life “spanned more than a century of history, marked by resilience, courage, and an unwavering dedication to sport,” said ETTU in a statement on his passing.
His life “stands as a testament to the unifying power of sport, the endurance of the human spirit, and the values that table tennis seeks to promote across generations,” it added.
Although Veselsky was born into a religious Jewish family, his grandson Nicholas Browne told The Irish Times that his grandfather identified as an atheist, and that “religion wasn’t part of his life.”
According to an Irish Times article from January 2025, Veselsky was awarded an honorary degree at Trinity College in 2016. He began taking humanities classes at the prestigious university in 2010, resuming his education at the age of 93 for the first time since the outbreak of World War Two.
He became the oldest man in Ireland following the death of the previous title holder, Martin McEvilly, in October 2024.
He is survived by his two children, Peter and Kate, his two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
The Times of Israel Community.