Arek Hersh stands as a testament to the courage and strength of Jews persecuted during the Second World War.
Born in Poland in 1928 he was just 10-years-old when his hometown Sieradz fell under Nazi occupation. He was 11 when stormtroopers kicked down the door of the family home.
Like many who survived the Holocaust his story of survival is remarkable.
Aged just 13 he was sent to Otoczno, a camp near Września. Arek’s job was to clean the commandant’s office which provided him with shelter and opportunities to steal food.
In 1942, he was sent back to Łódz where Arek and 1,400 residents were rounded up and forced into a church. It was a hot summer’s day, so he managed to escape to find water for his mother.
An SS Officer demanded to know his profession and Arek told him he was a tailor. Consequently, he was sent back to the ghetto to work along with 150 others.
Those left in the church were deported to Chełmno and murdered.
For the next two years, Arek lived in the ghetto orphanage and worked in a textile mill. Then in the summer of 1944, the ghetto was liquidated and on August 25, 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On entering Auschwitz he noticed two lines were being formed – one containing the most healthy prisoners and the other formed of the weak. He was in the latter.
Knowing the Nazis killed those they did not need, Arek used a moment when the SS were distracted by a commotion further down the line to swap queues. It saved his life. Everyone in his first queue was slaughtered.
Inside his head was shaved, he was given a striped uniform and tattooed with the prisoner number B7608.
Arek said: “If ever there was a hell, this is it.” His harrowing memories of imprisonment are “a constant reminder of what human beings can do”.
As the Allies advanced, the Nazis evacuated Auschwitz and on January 18, 1945, with the disease-ridden but surviving prisoners sent on a Death March which lasted three days.
They were forced to walk to Katowice railway station and then taken to Buchenwald concentration camp.
Here, Arek stayed in the children’s barrack until April 7, 1945 when 3,000 prisoners were sent on open wagons to Theresientstadt in Czechoslovakia. Only 600 prisoners survived the month-long journey.
Arek was liberated by the Russian Army on May 8, 1945.
On August 12, 1945, Arek, now 96, came to the UK alongside a group of 300 youngsters who were taken to the Lake District to recuperate. The evacuees are known as The Windermere Boys.
After learning English moved to Liverpool and became an electrician.
He later married Jean and they had three children. In 2009 was awarded an MBE for his service to Holocaust education.
