Recalls pre-war Poland. Recalls deportation trains passing his home town. survives a roundup in 1941. Tried to return to his home town after liberation in 1945.

Source

The Holocaust - Martin Gilbert, page 918

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Helfgott

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Helfgott

Ben Helfgott (born 22 November 1929) is a British Holocaust survivor and former champion weightlifter.

He was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs programme on 1 April 2007. He chose to be stranded with a copy of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy and a bar with two discs for weight training.

Helfgott was one of the individuals included by the London Jewish Museum in 2010 for an exhibit in which five British Jews recounted their experiences on video, representing what David Aaronovitch described in The Times as describing the "different ways of being Jewish". He is one of two Jewish athletes, as far as is known, to have competed in the Olympics after surviving the Holocaust.

Weightlifting career

National champion

He won the nation's 11-stone championship in 1954, and was lightweight champion in 1955, 1956 and 1958.

Olympics

He represented Great Britain at weightlifting in the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia. He was the captain of the British weightlifting teams at the Olympics in 1956 (Melbourne) and 1960 (Rome).

Commonwealth Games

In addition, he was a bronze medal winner at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff, south Wales.

Maccabiah Games

Helfgott also won the gold medal in the lightweight class at the 1950, 1953, and 1957 Maccabiah Games.