- Arek Hersh
Arek Hersh is a survivor of the
Holocaust .He was born in
Sieradz Poland and was taken to his first concentration camp when he was only eleven years old. The camp started out with 2,500 men, eighteen months later only 11 were alive. Arek moved around several camps before being taken toAuschwitz . Apparantly, even as a young boy at the time, Arek figured that if you were placed in a group with sick, young or old people, you were going to be killed as you were of no use to the Nazis. So, before entering the camp, where Jews were lined up in queues of fitter people and weaker people, Arek bravely crossed to the fitter queue, while a commotion happened near the rear of the line (SS officers tried to take a child from its mother), and in doing so, saved his own life. As the war came to a close and Germany was surrounded by the Allies, Arek and the rest of the Jews at Auschwitz were transported away across the country. He was eventually liberated atTheresienstadt ( Terezin,Czechoslovakia ) on the 8th May 1945 by the Russian Army. There were 5,000 jews in his town but only 40 of them came out alive.The Russian Soldiers let all of the surviving Jews do what ever they wanted with the Germans and Arek took the captain's food to show him how it felt to starve.
In 1948 Arek volunteered to fight in the Israeli Defence Forces "to contribute towards the war of independence".
Arek currently lives near Leeds, UK. He has written a book on his experiences called "A Detail of History".All the proceeds go to the
Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre , where he often gives presentations upon his experience.ee also
*
Miklos Kanitz Arek Hersh was the subject of an Award winning Documentary "AREK" (2005)Produced by UNISON and Directed by Tony Lloyd
References
* Hersh, Arek - A Detail Of History ( Quill, 2006 )
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