Editing Arek Hersh

{{Short description|Polish-British Holocaust survivor (born 1928)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Arek Hersh
| image         = Arek_Hersh.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Arek Hersh at Buckingham Palace, 2022
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date and age|df=y|13 September 1928}}
| birth_place   = [[Sieradz]], Poland
| death_date    =
| death_place   = 
| nationality   =
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = 
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = [[Holocaust survivors|Surviving the Holocaust]]
| notable_works = 
}}
'''Arek Hersh''', {{post-nominals|size=100%|MBE}} (born 13 September 1928) is a Polish survivor of the [[Holocaust]] and war veteran.

== Early life and World War II ==
Arek Hersh (Herszlikowicz - הרשליקוביץ׳) was born in [[Sieradz]], [[Poland]] on 13 September 1928.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://holocaustlearning.org.uk/stories/arek-hersh/|title=Arek Hersh|website=The Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> He was the son of a bootmaker for the Polish army and a homemaker.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.leftlion.co.uk/read/2019/july/holocaust-survivor-arek-hersh/|title=Auschwitz survivor Arek Hersh MBE: "I wanted to live. I wanted to survive."|website=LeftLion|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> At the age of eleven, following [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[invasion of Poland]], he was taken to his first concentration camp. The camp started out with 2,500 men; eighteen months later only eleven were alive. Hersh was moved around several camps before being taken to [[Auschwitz]]. Even as a young boy at the time, Hersh deduced that those who were placed in a group with sick, young or old people were considered by the Nazis to be of no use and would be killed. Consequently, while Jews were standing in two queues of fitter and weaker people before entering the camp, Hersh crossed to the fitter queue during a commotion near the rear of the line (SS officers tried to take a child from its mother), and in doing so, saved his own life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2019/march/arek-hersh-holocaust-centre-huddersfield/|title=Escaping death at Auschwitz – Arek Hersh tells his story|website=University of Huddersfield|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> As the war approached its conclusion and Germany was surrounded by the Allies, Hersh and the other Jews at Auschwitz were transported across the country. He was eventually liberated at [[Theresienstadt]] (Terezin, [[Czechoslovakia]]) on 8 May 1945 by the Soviet Army. There were 5,000 Jews in his town but only 40 of them came out alive.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marchoftheliving.org.uk/|title={{!}} Arek Hersh|website=March of the Living UK|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

The night before he was liberated, Hersh and a few other survivors found an unguarded German warehouse, from which they took as much food as they wanted; they ate so much that their stomachs hurt due to the sudden intake of rich fatty foods which they had lacked for so long. For Hersh, it was his first taste of chocolate in five years. The Soviet soldiers let all of the surviving Jews do whatever they wanted with the Germans; Arek took the captain's food to show him how it felt to starve.

Hersh was included in a group of 300 Holocaust-surviving children who, following their liberation, were brought to the [[Lake District]] in England as part of a rehabilitation plan. Their journey is documented in the BBC film ''[[The Windermere Children]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/05/windermere-children-arek-hersh-survivor-bbc-drama|title=From Nazi camps to the Lake District: the story of the Windermere children|last=Lewis|first=Tim|date=2020-01-05|work=The Observer|access-date=2020-01-06|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://starandgarter.org/press-release/remembrance-2019-roscorla-the-boys-holocaust/|title=RS&G Remembrance 2019: WW2 pilot's remarkable Holocaust rescue secret|website=Royal Star & Garter|date=November 2019 |language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> They were given just seven hours of English lessons and had to learn the rest for themselves.

Hersh lost 81 members of his immediate family in the Holocaust.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/meet-holocaust-survivor-who-lost-12530127|title=Meet the holocaust survivor who lost 81 members of his family|last=Jones|first=Mari|date=2017-01-31|website=northwales|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> Only one of his sisters survived.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/17383393.holocaust-survivor-arek-hersh-vows-to-educate-the-next-generation/|title=Holocaust survivor inspires local schools|website=The Mail|date=24 January 2019 |language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

== Post World War II ==
In 1948, Hersh volunteered to fight in the [[Israeli Defence Forces]] "to contribute towards the war of independence".

== Personal life ==
Hersh met his wife Jean at a dance in Leeds at the age of 32. They have three children and several grandchildren.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bingleygrammar.org/latest-news/arek-hersh-visits-yr-9/|title=Bingley Grammar School {{!}} Bingley Grammar School - Arek Hersh visits Yr 9|website=www.bingleygrammar.org|access-date=2020-01-06|archive-date=1 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201012148/https://www.bingleygrammar.org/latest-news/arek-hersh-visits-yr-9/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://apostrophebooks.com/writers/arek-hersh/|title=Arek Hersh, author of A Detail of History {{!}} Apostrophe Books|language=en|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref> He currently lives near [[Leeds]], England. In 1995, as part of his first public discussion of his Holocaust experiences, Hersh published his book, ''A Detail of History.''<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Detail of History: The harrowing true story of a boy who survived the Nazi Holocaust|isbn = 978-1910167779|last1 = Hersh|first1 = Arek|year = 2015| publisher=Apostrophe Books }}</ref> All the proceeds go to the [[Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre]], where he often gives presentations about his experience.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://personalstoriesoftheholocaust.weebly.com/arek-hersh.html|title=Arek Hersh|website=Survivor Stories of The Holocaust|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

== Awards and honors ==
[[File:Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets Holocaust Surviver Arek Hersh (52648099842).jpg|thumb|right|British Prime Minister [[Rishi Sunak]] gives a Points of Light Award to Hersh in January 2023]]
Hersh was the subject of the award-winning documentary "Arek" (2005) produced by UNISON and directed by Tony Lloyd.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arekmovie.com/ |title=Arek - How did a small boy escape the Nazi holocaust? |accessdate=6 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131126173130/http://www.arekmovie.com/ |archivedate=26 November 2013 }}</ref>

In 2009, he was awarded an [[MBE (Order of the British Empire)|MBE]] for voluntary service to Holocaust education.

In 2017 he was immortalised in a sculpture by [[Frances Segelman]] for the Leeds Makor Jewish Culture Office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/holocaust-survivor-immortalised-in-leeds-sculpture/|title=Holocaust survivor to be immortalised in Leeds sculpture|website=jewishnews.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>

In 2019 Hersh was one of the subjects in the BBC drama "The Windermere Children" telling the story of the child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust on arrival to Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere in 1945.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

==See also==
*[[Miklos Kanitz]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==

* Hersh, Arek (2001): ''A Detail of History''. Quill Press. {{ISBN|978-0953628056}}

==External links==

* [http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80016050 Imperial War Museum Interview]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/history-ks3-gcse-arek-hersh-interview/zdqkjhv Interview for BBC History KS3 / GCSE]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hersh, Arek}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Sieradz]]
[[Category:Auschwitz concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1928 births]]