Arek Hersh, (born 13 September 1928) is a Polish survivor of the

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 ...

and war veteran.

Early life and World War II

Arek Hersh (Herszlikowicz - הרשליקוביץ׳) was born in

Sieradz Sieradz (,) is a city on the Warta river in central Poland with 40,891 inhabitants (2021). It is the seat of the Sieradz County, situated in the Łódź Voivodeship. Sieradz is a capital of the historical Sieradz Land. Sieradz is one of the olde ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

on 13 September 1928. He was the son of a bootmaker for the Polish army and a homemaker. At the age of eleven, following

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 ...

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 ...

, he was taken to his first concentration camp. The camp started out with 2,500 men; eighteen months later only eleven were alive. Hersh was moved around several camps before being taken to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. Even as a young boy at the time, Hersh deduced that those who were placed in a group with sick, young or old people were considered by the Nazis to be of no use and would be killed. Consequently, while Jews were standing in two queues of fitter and weaker people before entering the camp, Hersh crossed to the fitter queue during a commotion 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 approached its conclusion and Germany was surrounded by the Allies, Hersh and the other Jews at Auschwitz were transported across the country. He was eventually liberated at

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

(Terezin,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

) on 8 May 1945 by the Soviet Army. There were 5,000 Jews in his town but only 40 of them came out alive. The night before he was liberated, Hersh and a few other survivors found an unguarded German warehouse, from which they took as much food as they wanted; they ate so much that their stomachs hurt due to the sudden intake of rich fatty foods which they had lacked for so long. For Hersh, it was his first taste of chocolate in five years. The Soviet soldiers let all of the surviving Jews do whatever they wanted with the Germans; Arek took the captain's food to show him how it felt to starve. Hersh was included in a group of 300 Holocaust-surviving children who, following their liberation, were brought to the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

in England as part of a rehabilitation plan. Their journey is documented in the BBC film ''

The Windermere Children ''The Windermere Children'' is a 2020 British biographical drama television film written by Simon Block and directed by Michael Samuels. Based on the experience of child survivors of the Holocaust, it follows the children and staff of a camp se ...

''. They were given just seven hours of English lessons and had to learn the rest for themselves. Hersh lost 81 members of his immediate family in the Holocaust. Only one of his sisters survived.

Post World War II

In 1948, Hersh volunteered to fight in the

Israeli Defence Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

"to contribute towards the war of independence".

Personal life

Hersh met his wife Jean at a dance in Leeds at the age of 32. They have three children and several grandchildren. He currently lives near

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England. In 1995, as part of his first public discussion of his Holocaust experiences, Hersh published his book, ''A Detail of History.'' All the proceeds go to the

Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre The National Holocaust Centre and Museum, previously known as Beth Shalom (lit. "House of Peace", is a Holocaust memorial centre near Laxton in Nottinghamshire in England. Opened in 1995, it is England's only dedicated Holocaust museum, though ...

, where he often gives presentations about his experience.

Awards and honors

Hersh was the subject of the award-winning documentary "Arek" (2005) produced by UNISON and directed by Tony Lloyd. In 2009, he was awarded an MBE for voluntary service to Holocaust education. In 2017 he was immortalised in a sculpture by Frances Segelman for the Leeds Makor Jewish Culture Office. In 2019 Hersh was one of the subjects in the BBC drama "The Windermere Children" telling the story of the child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust on arrival to Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere in 1945.

References

External links

Imperial War Museum Interview

Interview for BBC History KS3 / GCSE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hersh, Arek Living people People from Sieradz Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors 20th-century Polish Jews Members of the Order of the British Empire Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom 1928 births 20th-century British Jews 21st-century British Jews