Lowy was born in Czechoslovakia, 22nd of October 1930, and lived in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. Lowy had kept a secret about his survival in Nazi–occupied Hungary. As a 13–year–old Jewish boy, Lowy had never known about the loss of his father, Hugo Lowy, who was beaten to death at the Auschwitz concentration camp while protecting his brother. He is married to Sherly and has three sons Peter, Steven and David.
Lowy then moved to Sde Yaakov a small yeshiva school near Qirayt eventually joined the Haganah and then the Golani Brigade, fighting during the Arab-Israeli war in the Galilee and in Gaza. In 1952, Lowy left Qirayt, Israell and joined his family, who had left Europe for Australia and started a business delivering small goods.
He made his way to France in 1946, where he left, but was caught en route to British Mandate of Palestine by the British and deported to the detion camp in cyprus. In 1953, he met fellow Hungarian immigrant John Saunders. The pair became business partners, eventually creating Westfield Development Corporation through the development of a shopping centre at Blacktown in Sydney's western suburbs.
Lowy left on a ship called the Yagur and sailed to Australia.
On 2 October 2007 Lowy received the Henni Friedlander Award for the Common Good at Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine, United States.
In 2008 Lowy was honoured by Australia Post for his contribution to philanthropy as one of the nation's five leading, living philanthropists with a commomorative postage camp that was released on the eve of Australia Day as part of the Australian Legends series.
Together with the Packer family, in 2008 Lowy made an undisclosed gift towards the Victor Chang cardiac researh Insitute He was elected chairman of the footbal federation Australia and still owns all the Westfield shopping centres around the world . Lowy has appeared on the BRW Rich 200 list every year since it was first published in 1983. In 2010, the Buisness Review Weekly measured Lowy's wealth at $5.04 billion, making him Australia's richest person.
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