The Boxer

Hertzko Haft a 16-years old boy, was separated from his family and his future wife Leah in Nazi-occupied Poland and plugged into the horror and degradation of the concentration camps. In these five years, Hertzko started to fight in life or death boxing matches for the pleasure of his SS captors. His battles took him to the end of the Second World War.

After the liberation by the USA Army, he went to America, but there he was driven by an indomitable will fuelled by the convention that Lea, the woman he loves, was alive somewhere and that he had managed that Leah, the woman he loves, was alive somewhere and that he had managed to survive the Nazi genocide. When his boxing skills led him to a career as a boxer in America after the war, Haft could only hope that his rising success, which included a shot at the legendary boxer, Rocky Marciano, attracted Leah`s attention and ultimately reunited them.

Hertzko Haft, who changed his name in Harry Haft, after the Second World War, is the main character of this book. Before he come to the concentration camp, he was a boy with a lot of energy, a lot of optimism and joy in living. In this book, we can see how the Nazis took these positive aspects away from him and other millions of people.

Ich empfehle dieses Buch, weil ...
... I would recommend this book to everybody because I think that everyone should know the brutality and the horror of these concentration camps. Only if everyone knows this, we can avoid that everything happens again.