1944: Not Sim Kessel, Jewish boxer

ExecutedToday.com ^ | December 27, 2010 | Meaghan Good

[CheshireTheCat]

“In December 1944,” begins Sim Kessel’s Holocaust memoir, “I was hanged at Auschwitz.”

He was twenty-five years old and had been caught attempting to escape.

Sim Kessel (called “Sam” in some accounts), a French Jew who boxed professionally, had been at Auschwitz for two years — a staggering period of time where the normal lifespan of a prisoner was at most three months — and had already escaped the gas chambers on two occasions.

The first time, he was in the infirmary recuperating from a severe beating and torture at the hands of the SS (one of his fingers had been cut off), and a Nazi doctor judged him incapable of recovery and took his number down. Then, a miracle: somehow, his chart was misplaced.

Four days later Kessel was selected again and this time actually marched to the gas chamber with other hopeless cases. As they were lined up, naked and shivering, waiting their turn to die, an SS man happened to pass on a motorcycle and stopped to have a look at them. Kessel recognized something in him:...

[Albion Wilde]

What an amazing story! Thanks for posting it.

[Dogbert41]

Miraculous!!!

[Tijeras_Slim]

WOW

[super7man]

I am always impressed by how well written the Executed Today articles are.

[AZJeep]

Pretty much the only way to survive Auschwitz.
Have some skill which Germen liked.
Germen liked boxing so several boxers survived.
I have met a magician who survived Auschwitz playing magic to them.

[kiryandil]

I am always impressed by how well written the Executed Today articles are.

Indeed they are.

[AnAmericanMother]

When it’s not your time . . . .

[Rusty0604]

Great story, thanks!

[texas booster]

Kessel survived two death marches and other dangers before he was liberated on May 7, 1945, five months after the rope broke.

Extremely well written!

So well written that I followed the link and finished reading.

And here is a taste of what one is missing if you don't also follow the link.

Thanks, Cheshire!

[grey_whiskers]

Holy cow, what a story!

[Conservat1]

Wow

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Has an An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge buzz about it.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Except that the rope didn’t break in the Bierce story.

[Gay State Conservative]

My visit to Dachau,years ago,was by far the most troubling day I've ever spent on this earth. Reading this I'm reminded of a documentary I once saw which described a visit that several top Allied Generals made to a recently liberated camp. Ike,Bradley and Patton were there...among others. It was said that at one point during the tour Patton became physically ill.