Ben Helfgott

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Sir Ben Helfgott
MBE
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born (1929-11-22) 22 November 1929 (age 91)
Piotrków Trybunalski, Łódzkie, Second Polish Republic
Height165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight67 kg (148 lb)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
SportWeightlifting
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Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Weightlifting
Maccabiah Games
Gold medal – first place 1950 Israel Lightweight
Gold medal – first place 1953 Israel Lightweight
Gold medal – first place 1957 Israel Lightweight
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place 1958 Cardiff Lightweight

Sir Ben Helfgott MBE (born 22 November 1929) is a Polish-born British Holocaust survivor and former champion weightlifter.[1] He is one of two Jewish athletes known to have competed in the Olympics after surviving the Holocaust,[2] although according to the definition of 'surviving the Holocaust' there could also be others, such as Susie Halter (originally Zsuzsa Nádor) who escaped from a forced march on her way to a slave labour camp[3] and then survived in hiding in Budapest. Helfgott has spent his adult life promoting Holocaust education, meeting with national leaders in the UK to promote cultural integration and peace.[4]

Biography[]

Helfgott was born in Piotrków Trybunalski, Łódź, Poland. He was 10 years old when Germany invaded the country in 1939. In 1942, with the help of Andrew Janotta, he convinced the Nazis that he was ethnically Polish and not a Jew. He was eventually sent to a concentration camp. He was liberated in 1946, but was very weak. Initially sent to Buchenwald, Helfgott survived the Holocaust and was among around 750 youngsters sent to England after the war after being liberated from Theresienstadt; he formed a part of the initial 300 arrivals and thus of the group known as The Windermere Children who were sent to Troutbeck Bridge on arrival. He and one of his sisters were the only members of his family to survive the war; his mother and youngest sister were rounded up and shot by the Nazis.[5][6] There are descriptions of his experiences both during and after the Holocaust in Martin Gilbert's book about 732 young concentration camp survivors who were sent to the United Kingdom after the war.[7]

Weightlifting career[]

Helfgott won the nation's 11 st (70 kg) championship in 1954 and was lightweight champion in 1955, 1956 and 1958. 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). In addition, he was a bronze medal winner at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff, South Wales. Helfgott also won the gold medal in the lightweight class at 1950, 1953, and 1957 Maccabiah Games.

Media appearances[]

As 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 A History of Western Philosophy and a bar with two discs for weight training.[5] In 2010, Helfgott was one of five British Jews interviewed for an exhibit at the London Jewish Museum exploring "different ways of being Jewish."[8] In 2018, Helfgott appeared in an edition of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Robert Rinder. In the programme, Helfgott recalled how he had encountered Rinder's maternal grandfather, Moszek (Moses, Morris), in the Schlieben concentration camp.[9]

Personal life[]

Helfgott married Arza in 1966, with whom he then had three sons. He had begun a course at the University of Southampton in 1948 but dropped out after a year and thereafter was partner in a business manufacturing dresses.[6]

Awards, honours and recognition[]

Poland[]

POL Order Zaslugi RP kl3 BAR.svg Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2005)
POL Order Zaslugi RP kl5 BAR.svg Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1994)

United Kingdom[]

Knight Bachelor ribbon.svg Knight Bachelor (2018)
Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon.png Member of the Order of the British Empire (2000)

In 2012, at a Limmud convention in Nazareth Illit organized to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, Helfgott was awarded a prize by the mayor.[1] In 2018, Helfgott was appointed a Knight Bachelor in recognition of his contribution to services to Holocaust remembrance and education.[10] In October 2020, Helfgott was awarded the Pride of Britain award by Stephen Fry; the 2020 event was held at the Holocaust Memorial in Hyde Park because of the coronavirus pandemic.[11]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Remembering the living dead: 40 years since the Munich murder
  2. ^ Steve Lipman (August 13, 2004). "The Olympics and The Holocaust". Jewish Federations of North America. Archived from the original on 2013-04-16.
  3. ^ "London 2012: My Olympic Experience, 1948 Olympic Swimmer Susan Halter". The Telegraph. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2020.[dead link]
  4. ^ Pollock, Karen. "Ben Helfgott knighted in Queen's Birthday Honours". Holocaust Educational Trust. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Ben Helfgott". Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. April 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Freedland, Michael (8 May 2018). "'I had to get on with living': how Ben Helfgott went from a concentration camp to Olympic weightlifting". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
  7. ^ M Gilbert The Boys, The Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors. Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1996
  8. ^ Aaronovitch, David. "Jewish Museum: history with chicken soup: The all-new Jewish Museum in North London has the sights and even the smells of an ancient British way of life", The Times, March 2, 2010. Accessed February 2, 2011.
  9. ^ Rinder, Robert. "OPINION – Rob Rinder: We must tell our children and our children's children". jewishnews.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  10. ^ "Birthday Honours 2018" (PDF). Gov.uk. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Holocaust survivor Sir Ben Helfgott wins Pride of Britain award". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 2020-11-03.
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