Salamo Arouch
Salamo Arouch (1923- 30 April 2009) is a Jewish Greek champion boxer whose experience being forced to fight to entertain the Nazi audience in Auschwitz was portrayed in the 1989 film Triumph of the Spirit.[1]
Biography
Arouch was born in 1923,[2] in Thessaloniki, Greece, one of two sons in a family that also included three daughters.[3] His father was a stevedore who nurtured his son's interest in boxing, teaching him when he was a child.[2] When Arouch was 14, he fought and won his first boxing match.[4] Though only 5'6", Arouch became the light-middleweight champion of the Balkans in 1941 when he was 17.[2]
In 1945, his family was interred in the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.[2] In Auschwitz, where Arouch was tagged prisoner 136954, the commandment sought boxers among the newly interred and, once assured of Arouch's abilities, set him to twice- or thrice-weekly boxing matches against other prisoners.[4] According to Arouch, he was undefeated at Auschwitz, though two matches he was forced to fight while recovering from dysentery ended in draws.[4] Lodged with the other fighters forced to participate in these matches and paid in extra food or lighter work, Salarmo fought over 200 matches at his estimation, knowing that prisoners who lost would be sent to the gas chamber or shot.[3]
Though Arouch survived the war, being released from Auschwitz on January 17, 1945, his parents and siblings did not.[3][2] During a search for family at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April, 1945, he met Marta Yechiel, a 17-year-old survivor from his own hometown.[2] With Yechiel, he emigrated to Israel, settling in Tel Aviv to manage a shipping firm.[5][2] Arouch and Yechiel wed in November of 1945 and raised a family of four.[2] Arouch was a consultant on the 1989 dramatic reenactment of his early life,[5] accompanying filmmakers several times on an emotional return to the concentration camp.[3] The film takes some artistic liberties with the biographical details of his life, including the renaming of his wife and placing her in his story prior to internment.[3]
References
- ^ Atlas, Teddy (2006). Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring : a Son's Struggle to Become a Man. HarperCollins. p. 141. ISBN 0060542403.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h Schindehette, Susan (1990-02-19). "Boxer Salamo Arouch's Death Camp Bouts End in a Triumph of the Spirit". People Magazine. 33 (7). Retrieved 2008-11-22.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d e Taliabue, John (1989-05-14). "Fighting for life itself in a Nazi boxing ring". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
- ^ a b c Berger, Phil (1989-12-18). "Prisoner in the ring". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
- ^ a b Travers, Peter (1989). "Triumph of the Spirit". Rolling Stone (570). Retrieved 2008-11-22.