The last moments of Katherine Schweitzer’s life – strangled then dumped in a wheelie bin last Wednesday – were cruel and abrupt, but a small measure of respect was returned to her today when Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, attended her funeral service.

Speaking in slight rain outside the funeral service, Rabbi Metzger expressed the sorrow of the Jewish community over the 81-year-old Holocaust survivor’s death.

“I heard about this tragic case and I changed my plans to come and give her the honour of a survivor of the Holocaust,” he said.

Rabbi Metzger, holidaying in Australia, said despite not having any living relatives Ms Schweitzer now had an entire family behind her.

“All the Jewish nation are her kids from today,” he said.

About 80 people gathered at 10am at the Sydney Chevra Kadisha, in Woollahra, to farewell Mrs Schweitzer.

“We are gathered in solemn assembly to take leave of and say shalom and farewell to a very special and beautiful human being, Katherine Schweitzer,” said the officiating rabbi, David Rogut.

“At this moment her book of life has closed; a chapter has ended for our darling Kathy … this senseless murder of a gentle, saintly and elderly person should never have happened.

“Katherine leaves no immediate family. The truth is she leaves behind an entire city and country mourning for her tragic death and honouring her for her outstanding life,” he said.

Mrs Schweitzer’s body was found inside a wheelie bin outside her fifth-floor apartment in a unit block on Buller Street, Bellevue Hill.

Police have speculated that her murder might have been a thrill killing, as they have yet to find any other motive.

She was born in 1925 in Budapest, and spent her teen years working in the Hungarian resistance, helping to save Jewish lives from the Nazi concentration camps by forging birth certificates.

Her entire family died during the Nazi regime. Her father and brother were poisoned with arsenic after being dragged from their home by German soldiers.

In 1948 Mrs Schweitzer married Paul Schweitzer and they moved to Australia in 1956, where she worked as an accountant.

SMH