This is not just the story of another Holocaust survivor. There is
nothing about Ben Helfgott that is usual. After all, very few
survivors would, just a few years after liberation, become Olympic
athletes. He did exactly that. He was a boy growing up in a small
Polish town, Pietrkow, when his whole life changed as the Nazis
moved in during the first week of the Second World War. As a small
child he was top of his class - everything he did was of a standard
beyond that of any of his classmates. He learned languages so that
he spoke and understood at least three of them before he was eight
years old. He read newspapers and watched films that were beyond
his years. His sister, the only other member of his family to
survive, says that if she or anyone else needed a protector, Ben
was the one to call in. Above all, he excelled in sports. He had a
wiry frame and was small in stature, but no one else could match
him in any game he played. When the Nazis came to Pietrkow, his
mother and a sister were shot. He and his father managed to live a
kind of life in the ever shrinking ghetto in the town. Both worked
in a glass factory and a woodwork plant. Before long, they would be
transported to the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp where his
father subsequently died. Taken to Thereisenstadt, a centre that
had served as a kind of way station for Jews on the way to death
camps, it was there that he was liberated by the Red Army. Before
long, he was one of 'The Boys' who came to England, which became
his home. His sporting excellence was recognised when he was
selected for two Olympic Games in which he represented Britain as a
weightlifter. He became a successful businessman and retired early
so that he could make a personal crusade of bringing together other
survivors. He founded the famous 45 Aid Society, worked with the
Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Holocaust Educational
Trust. On the international scene, he, in his mid 80s, is a
prominent figure in the Claims Conference, which has awarded
billions of dollars to needy survivors. In a way, it is a
controversial book. He is a great believer in reconciliation with
both Germany and his native Poland - and both nations have made him
awards in recognition of his work. It is a story Michael Freedland
tells after dozens of interviews with Ben himself, as well as with
members of his family, fellow survivors and residents of his old
home town in Poland. [Subject: Biography, Holocaust, Claims
Conference, Reconciliation]
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