Arek Hersh

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Arek Hersh is a survivor of the Holocaust.

He was born in Sieradz Poland and was taken to his first concentration camp when he was only eleven years old. The camp started out with 2,500 men, eighteen months later only 11 were alive. Arek moved around several camps before being taken to Auschwitz and then transported away from the advancing allied forces. He was eventually liberated at Theresienstadt ( Terezin, Czechoslovakia ) on the 8th May 1945 by the Russian Army. There were 5,000 jews in his town but only 40 of them came out alive.

The Russian Soldiers let all of the surviving Jews do what ever they wanted to the germans and Arek took The captains food to show him how it felt to starve.

In 1948 Arek volunteered to fight in the Israeli Defence Forces "to contribute towards the war of independence".

Arek currently lives near Leeds, UK. He has written a book on his experiences called A Detail of History. All the proceeds go to the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre, where he often gives presentations upon his experience.