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Hans Pomeranz’s thinking helped bring Test highlights to Australia and ignited his distinguished film career

When Hans Pomeranz died in 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald’s obituary described “a force in Australia’s film industry”. Born into a Jewish family in Enschede, Netherlands, in 1938, he survived the second world war in an orphanage and, later, by masquerading as the son of a Protestant minister. At the end of the conflict he and what remained of his family – his sister is believed to have died at Auschwitz – were reunited and emigrated to Australia, where he went on to secure an apprenticeship at a film laboratory. He became, in time, an editor of considerable renown, the husband of the film critic and television presenter Margaret Pomeranz, and in 1964 he set up his own editing company, Spectrum Films. His company flourished and continues to do so: with his eldest son, Josh, now in charge it describes itself as “the pre-eminent post production facility in the Australasian region” and in recent years has been used in producing major films including The Matrix, The Great Gatsby and Wolverine.

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