Alexander Donat, also Aleksander Donat in Polish (1905 – 16 June 1983), was a

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor imprisoned at the Lodz Ghetto and several Nazi

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s during the

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, Donat, a chemist by training and journalist by profession, emigrated with his family to the United States, settling in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. As an eye witness to

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust saw the ghettoization, robbery, deportation and mass murder of Jews, alongside other groups under Nazi racial theories, similar racial pretexts in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland by the Nazi Germany. Over th ...

, he went on to write about his wartime experiences, collect documents, and publish the narratives of others.Eric J. Greenberg (May 5, 2000)
Selective Memory?
The Jewish Week.

Biography

Alexander Donat was born Michał Berg in the Polish capital

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, where he lived until

. He was a publisher of a daily newspaper there, had married, and became a father in 1937 to a son William. Following the Nazi German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

Berg (Donat) and his family were forced into the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. From there, he was deported to several slave labor and concentration camps including

Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...

. Michał Berg met a prisoner whose real name was Alexander Donat at Vaihingen

. They secretly agreed to switch their names for a prisoner transport. Soon thereafter the real Alexander Donat was murdered. Berg decided to keep Donat's name as his own forever. Donat feared that, "should the Nazis be victorious, 'future generations will pay tribute to them'" similar to

Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and ''Homeric Hymns''. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of an archaic form of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Ar ...

crusaders. He was liberated from

Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

by American troops and returned to Warsaw, where he found his wife and their son, whom the Polish rescuers had placed in a Catholic orphanage. The Donats went to the United States and opened a printing business.Laura Jockusch
''Collect and Record!: Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe''
Oxford University Press (Google Books preview). Retrieved The New York Times (June 19, 1983)

/ref> In 1977, Donat helped start "The Holocaust Library", a non-profit program to launch books that condemn persecution and tell of the personal experiences of the Jews during the Second World War. He died of a lung disease at Mount Sinai Hospital in

. His son William Donat was a noted publisher, President of Waldon Press, and a graphic artist. He died on November 5, 2009.The New York Times (November 5, 2009)
Obituary: William H. Donat
(son of Alexander). Death notice reprinted by Legacy.com (September 6, 2013).

Publications

*''Jewish Resistance'' (1964) *''Holocaust Kingdom'' (1965) *''The Death Camp Treblinka: a documentary'' (1979)

Notes

References

Barbara Engelking Barbara Engelking (born 22 April 1962) is a Polish psychologist and sociologist specializing in Holocaust studies. The founder and director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw, she is the author or editor of several works on t ...

Jacek Leociak Jacek Leociak (born 2 June 1957, in Warsaw) is a Polish literary scholar and historian as well as author. He is a professor of humanities and an employee of the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Ce ...

''The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City''.

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

(Google Books preview). Retrieved *

Joshua D. Zimmerman Joshua D. Zimmerman (born 1966) holds the Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History at Yeshiva University. He is the author or editor of several works about the Holocaust, including ''Contes ...

''Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath''
Rutgers University Press. Retrieved *

Henryk Grynberg Henryk Grynberg (born 1936 in Warsaw) is a Polish writer and actor who survived the Nazi occupation. He is a novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright and essayist who had authored more than thirty books of prose and poetry and two dramas. G ...

"My, Żydzi z Dobrego"
Kanadyjska Fundacja Dziedzictwa Polsko-Żydowskiego, Montreal. Retrieved {{DEFAULTSORT:Donat, Alexander 1905 births 1983 deaths Jewish American journalists Majdanek concentration camp survivors Warsaw Ghetto inmates Polish emigrants to the United States Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp survivors 20th-century American Jews