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CU Boulder’s Program in Jewish Studies and the Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History invite the public to a presentation by Zev Harel, who will give testimony about his struggles for survival at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Ebensee.
Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022
12:30-2:00 pm MT
Via Zoom
Register for the event here.
Born in 1930 in Kis-Sikarlo, Transylvania, Hungary (present-day Romania), the young Zev Harel (né Sarkas Herskovits) faced multiple anti-Jewish restrictions before Hungarian authorities forced the family into a ghetto. He was deported to Auschwitz in March 1944. During selections, Harel managed to convince the Germans that he was much older and was slated to do slave labor. Sent to Mauthausen, Austria, and then to Ebensee, he was forced to take part in the construction of an underground armament factory under unimaginable brutal conditions. Suffering from Typhoid, he was liberated and rushed to a hospital in nearby Linz by African-American soldiers from the U.S. Third Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron in May 1945. Via a DP Camp, Harel left Europe for Palestine, where he fought in the Israeli War of Independence. He later studied in Israel and the U.S., earning a PhD and eventually settling in Cleveland, OH.
This event is free and open to the public. To learn more and register for the event, please visit www.colorado.edu/jewishstudies/events.
Image Description: Prisoners of the Ebensee concentration camp in Austria, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, photographed by an American soldier at liberation on May 6, 1945. Zev Haral is the second from the right, standing behind other liberated prisoners (National Archives and Records Administration).
