Historical story

Nazi Gladiator School. For fun, the Germans organized bloody games in Auschwitz

Boxing matches, in which exhausted prisoners fought to the death, were one of the favorite pastimes of the Nazis in concentration camps. The drunken Germans shouted:"You have to fight until we see blood or one of you dies!". And they fought…

The winners could count on better treatment - extra food rations, lighter work, and even… cigarettes. There was no room for the losers. Many of the players who fell in the ring were not allowed to continue living.

Rules of iron

In addition to being a source of (bloody) entertainment, boxing matches were also a lucrative business. Before the matches, kapos and SS men - usually already very drunk - made bets. Camp celebrities had their favorites, on which they put considerable sums of money and which they therefore gave protection to. The Hauptsturmführer Heinrich Schwarz saw an excellent opportunity in this. Andrzej Fedorowicz in the book Gladiators from the death camps describes:

On Sundays, however, Monowice became Schwarz's kingdom. This boxing and wrestling geek dreamed of establishing a real "gladiator school" in them. In the transports coming from all over Europe, there were many boxers - better and worse (...).

It is true that boxing matches in the "old" Auschwitz had been held regularly since the spring of 1941 and Schwarz had his favorites there, but he dreamed of something completely different. He was perfectly familiar with the principles on which the "camps" system was based and he saw its weaknesses.

When standing in the ring, they had to let go of any sentiment - they weren't allowed to let go until their opponent gave up the fight - or was knocked out.

Schwarz did not like that the boxing kapo after losing in the ring - if they did not want to kill the prisoner who humiliated them (which the "patrons" of the best players, who earned good money on their "performances", did not agree to), they had to consider the opponent as an equal . He complained that for this reason "so many of these boxers - Poles and Jews - are still alive and are ruling Auschwitz now."

Different rules were to apply in Monowice:no duels with functionaries, no amateur, three-round matches and a fight to the end. Competitors who would lose their strength and willingness to fight were to die in the gas chamber. "In the stable" Schwarz wanted to have 30 boxers on a permanent basis who would stand in the ring twice a week.

Of course, if there were better players in the new transport, there would be an exchange. Only the winners were to survive.

The boxing capital of the extermination camps

In 1943, when Heinrich Schwarz was appointed commandant of the Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp, there were a dozen boxers in his "gladiatorial school":incl. Greek Salamo Arouch, French bantamweight champion Francesco Bounagurio "Kid Francis" and Italian Jew Leona Efrati "Lalletto", one of the world-class featherweight fighters. In Death Camp Gladiators Andrzej Fedorowicz reports:

The trainer of "Schwarz's stable" was the German criminal Kurt Magatanz, a former boxer and triple murderer sentenced to life imprisonment, and now a kapo with a green "corner". Jacko Razon soon joined him. (...) Monowice quickly became the boxing capital in the archipelago of extermination camps.

Heinrich_Schwarz. There were a dozen boxers in his "gladiator school"

The new commander, on the wave of the success of his private "entertainment factory", organized a real spectacle in Monowice on Christmas in 1943:he ordered a circus tent with places for over a thousand spectators to be erected on the camp square for a boxing tournament. Each fight was supposed to last 15 rounds.

During breaks between the duels, performances by the camp orchestra and a "talent show" of the prisoners are planned. As Fedorowicz describes:"The attraction was the vocal performances of Leon Greenman, an amateur opera singer before the war and also an amateur boxer, who, however, did not disclose his skill to the Germans."

The triumph of the spirit

The highlight of the program, however, were Schwarz's "gladiators". When standing in the ring, they had to let go of any sentiment - they were not allowed to let go until their opponent gave up the fight - or was knocked out. Their survival instinct kept them from showing any mercy. In the end, their lives were the price - the too weak players were sentenced to death by the SS men without scruples.

Such a fate befell, among others the aforementioned Kid Francis. Leone Efrati also ended up in the crematorium, although in his case it was not due to lost matches. The famous Lelletto died because… he was winning. In Death Camp Gladiators Andrzej Fedorowicz writes:“Tall, fast, close to average weight, he could even face much heavier players. However, not everyone was satisfied with his victories. Those who bet on his opponent have threatened him many times with revenge. ”

And finally they got what they wanted. In April 1944, in retaliation for the last game of the kapos who lost their money, they beat his brother, Marco. The angered boxer burst into the barracks where the Germans were and began hitting one of the executioners with his fists. He was stopped by the functionaries, who after incapacitating Efrati for several minutes tortured him with clubs. His head was smashed afterwards, his arms and legs were broken. He was fit neither for work, nor - much less - for boxing. Two days later he was dragged into the gas chamber.

The text is based on a new book by Andrzej Fedorowicz, Gladiators from the Death Camps, which was published by the Bellona publishing house.

Salamo Arouch was more fortunate. Schwarz, who was constantly looking for new opponents for him, regretted that he could not organize his duel with the legendary Tadeusz Pietrzykowski (he had left before the Greek boxer reached the camp), but he managed to meet Pietrzykowski's successor, Antoni Czortek. The contestants fought each other with their bare fists because the gloves were forgotten. The Greek won. Andrzej Fedorowicz comments:"Schwarz was pleased - the meeting proved that his gladiators from Monowice are the best of all KL Auschwitz sub-camps".

In 1989, the whole world heard about Arouch when Robert M. Young's film The Triumph of the Spirit was released in cinemas. , the script of which was partly based on interviews the boxer gave after the war to the Israeli press. Interestingly, another boxer from the "stable" Schwarz complained that he was considered the prototype of the main character of the production. Jacko Razon claimed that the writers stole his biography and demanded $ 2 million in damages. Eventually he got 30,000.

Source:

The text is based on the new book by Andrzej Fedorowicz Gladiators from the death camps , which was released by the Bellona publishing house.