Salamo Arouch

Salamo Arouch was a Jewish Greek boxer who survived the Holocaust by boxing for the entertainment of Nazi officers in Auschwitz concentration camp. He was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1923, and became the middleweight champion of Greece and the Balkans in his teens. He joined the Greek army in 1940 and fought against the Italian invasion. In 1943, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz, where he was forced to fight other prisoners in brutal matches. He estimated that he fought over 200 bouts, and that the losers were usually killed or sent to the gas chambers. He also witnessed the deaths of his parents and siblings in the camp. He was transferred to Bergen-Belsen in 1945, where he met his future wife, Marta Yechiel, a fellow survivor from his hometown. They were liberated by the British army and moved to Israel in 1948. He served in the Israeli army during the War of Independence and fought a few more boxing matches. He later worked as a shipping clerk and a security guard. He suffered a stroke in 1994 and died in 2009 at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife and four children. His story was the inspiration for the 1989 film Triumph of the Spirit, starring Willem Dafoe as Arouch. The film was the first to be shot on location at Auschwitz. Arouch also gave motivational speeches to young people about his experiences and his message of hope and resilience.