Salamo arouch biography channel

Salamo Arouch (1923 – April 26, 2009) was a Jewish Greek boxer who survived the Holocaust by entertaining Nazi officers in Auschwitz with his boxing skills. His story was portrayed in the 1989 film Triumph of the Spirit.

Biography

Arouch was born in 1923, in Thessaloniki, Greece, one of two sons in a family that also included three daughters.

His father was a stevedore who nurtured his son's interest in boxing, teaching him when he was a child.

Salamo Arouch - Wikipedia

Arouch said that when he was 14, he fought and won his first boxing match. He told People that, though only 5'6", he became the light-middleweight champion of the Balkans in 1941 when he was 17.

In 1943, his family was interred in the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In Auschwitz, where Arouch was tagged prisoner 136954, he said the commander sought boxers among the newly interned and, once assured of Arouch's abilities, set him to twice- or thrice-weekly boxing matches against other prisoners.

Salamo Arouch - The Week GEW