Alex Hershaft
Alex Hershaft (M / Poland, 1934), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Warsaw Ghetto> <Hiding> -- <Israel>
Biography
Hershaft was born in Warsaw, Poland, on July 1, 1934, to fairly assimilated Jewish parents Jozef and Sabina Herszaft. Sabina was a mathematician. Jozef was a chemist.
During the war, the family was forced to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. As the Nazis began liquidating the Ghetto in late 1942, sending inmates to the Treblinka death camp, all three were able to escape to the Christian side and remain in hiding. Sabina and Alex were liberated by the allies in the spring of 1945. After the war and five years in an Italian refugee camp, Sabina emigrated to Israel, while 16-year-old Alexander arrived in the U.S. in January 1951. Sabina died in Israel in 1996.
Alex became a scientist and environmental activist.