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.

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 unimaginably 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. For more information, please contact the Program in Jewish Studies at CUJewishStudies@colorado.edu or Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History) at Thomas.Pegelow-Kaplan@colorado.edu

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).

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures.

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.

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 unimaginably 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. For more information, please contact the Program in Jewish Studies at CUJewishStudies@colorado.edu or Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History) at Thomas.Pegelow-Kaplan@colorado.edu

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).

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures.