Holocaust survivor and former Inverness Courier reporter Kathy Hagler who escaped Nazi horrors in Hungary to “make a life” in the Scottish Highlands dies at 82
A Holocaust survivor who escaped the horrors of the Nazi death camps to “make a life” in Inverness has died at the age of 82.
The wonderfully vivacious, warm and fiercely-intelligent Kathleen Hagler passed away in the care of Highland Hospice on December 12.
The little girl courageously smuggled by a railway traveller out of the Jewish ghetto of Munkács in 1940s Hungary, now part of Ukraine, would never see her parents and brother again.
After being brought up by her grandmother and aunt in Budapest, she moved with them to Israel at 16 to work in a kibbutz, before eventually settling in Scotland.
At the age of 35, Kathy, as she was known to all, fell in love with the Highlands during a holiday.
She became a distinguished academic, worked in accountancy and then became a newspaper reporter with the Inverness Courier in her 40s.
New owner Stuart Lindsay, having bought the paper from the legendary Eveline Barron in 1988, employed her first for her accountancy skills then as a writer.
Previously, as an accounts clerk for a local firm in the late 1980s, she had uncovered damaging fraudulent activity being operated by one individual that threatened the company’s future.
By whistle-blowing, she feared losing her job and deportation back to Israel, but boldly did just that, leading to the conviction and jailing of the culprit.
Stuart, who immediately offered her secure employment after learning of the selfless act, recalled: “Kathy made a life for herself here, from the unlikeliest of beginnings.
“For years, she never spoke about what happened to her and her family. The holocaust memorial group persuaded her, reluctantly, to talk. I went along to listen and it was one of the most uncomfortable evenings I ever spent.
“She spoke only because she feared that everyone was forgetting.”
At the Courier, in the days before tobacco was banned indoors, chain-smoking Kathy would work engulfed in a happy cigarette fug, ashtray overflowing.
A classic Kathy scene would involve cradling a telephone receiver between her ear and shoulder ‘hands-free’, with fag between her fingers, while simultaneously puffing away and touch-typing quotes as the interviewee spoke.
Past colleagues recall her joy for life and instinctive kindness, but also her knack of a withering comment or piercing stare. She was, after all, a multilingual, degree-laden Mensa member who didn’t suffer fools.
She was also a terrifyingly atrocious driver.
Kathy’s road skills were so bad she once reduced a seasoned newspaper photographer to the brink of tears at the prospect of joining her on a white knuckle passenger ride back from Inverness airport.
She told colleagues she had learned to drive in the Israeli army. One noted that she drove her conspicuously dented car “like a tank”.
Behind the warm smile, there was deep pain and sadness.
Kathy rarely, if ever, spoke publicly about the horrors that beset her early life despite being herself so open to sharing and helping with the troubles of others.
Colleagues and even some close friends were completely unaware of what she and her family endured.
It was only in retirement, in her 70s, that she began to publicly recount her story, concerned that Nazi atrocities were gradually being forgotten.
That story is both heartbreaking and harrowing.
In 1944, at 18 months old, she was smuggled out of Munkács - now Mukachevo - ghetto, where she had been born.
She had lost an elder sister Judit in infancy. Her father Zsigmond had already disappeared in Nazi custody and mum Rita and unwell brother Lajos were to follow Kathy to Budapest later. They would never make it.
When Kathy’s rescuer returned a fortnight later, the remainder of her family had been deported to the gas chambers of the Auschwitz death camp.
Past Courier colleague Calum Macleod said: “Kathy was someone who I won’t forget. She was always helpful and the one person all us innumerate hacks turned to if we had any sort of mathematical problem to work out.
“Her own story was probably more fascinating and tragic than any she covered.
“The last time I saw her was at Inverness Town House when she bravely, and emotionally, spoke about the Holocaust. Speaking so publicly was obviously not easy for her, and it was plain to see the pain of recalling those memories.
“It was something she felt she had to do at a time when certain groups were attempting to deny or minimise atrocities of the past.
“She was remarkably cosmopolitan, as might be expected from someone who spoke a multitude of languages and could claim to have been born in at least three countries, with shifting borders meaning her birthplace became a part of the Soviet Union and later Ukraine.
“Add to this her time in Israel and Scotland, and it would be difficult not to see Kathy as more of a citizen of the world than a single nation.
“I remember once a Soviet T-34 tank made a very unlikely appearance in our shared car park while being relocated to a museum, and Kathy recalled that the last time she had seen one of those she had been throwing Molotov cocktails at one during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
“She was to experience more conflict after she moved to Israel, but at least in Scotland she found a peaceful place to settle and make new friends and memories. She will be missed.”
Kathy’s very closest friend of the best part of five decades was Inverness woman Margaret Telford, who she taught bridge, another of her passions.
It was Margaret and her family who first took her in when she moved permanently to Inverness.
Margaret said: “She came to stay with us 46 or 47 years ago and has been part of the family ever since.
“She could be very blunt, but once you got underneath that, she was one of the most caring people you could meet.”
Journalist Catherine MacGillivray also became a friend.
She recalled: “When I joined the Inverness Courier in 1989 as a young trainee reporter, she took me under her wing at a time when my mother had just died.
“Kathy went on to become a life-long friend, maternal figure and mentor to me. She was a role model in showing how to overcome the worst form of horror.
“As a Holocaust survivor, she lived with neither bitterness nor hatred, but with kindness, compassion and love.”
Hector Mackenzie, a news editor at Highland News and Media, worked with Kathy for many years at The Inverness Courier and added: "Hers strikes me as a very full life well lived.
"It was such a pleasure and honour to know and work with Kathy, one of the most interesting, funny and intelligent people I have ever met. It perhaps related to the unimaginable tragedy visited on her own family that she wasn't one for small talk.
“Her blunt pronouncements and no-nonsense approach to life were like a breath of fresh air to me.
"There are many lives that will have been touched by her and I have no doubt many others will have fond memories of a colourful character who was a real one-off."
Kathy’s funeral notice reads:
HAGLER Peacefully, in the loving care of the Highland Hospice, on 12th December, 2024, Kathleen, aged 82. A very special friend to many. Kathleen's funeral will be held on Friday, 10th January, 2025, at 12 noon, in Inverness Crematorium. All welcome to attend. No flowers please, but donations for the Highland Hospice may be given at the door. Livestream available via www.johnfraserandson.com/family-notices Arrangements by John Fraser & Son of Chapel Street, Inverness.