Remarkable True Story of Holocaust Survivor Who Became a Nazi Hunter

The Survivor by Josef Lewkowicz

Josef Lewkowicz was and remains a hero among men as well as a voice for all those who could not speak

Josef Lewkowicz passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 98 on December 26, 2024, a month before the book launch and planned limited tour of his exceptional and important memoir The Survivor, subtitled How I Made It through Six Concentration Camps and Became a NAZI HUNTER.

His remarkable life story was co-authored by award-winning English journalist and writer Michael Calvin. The Survivor has already been translated into twelve languages.

One of the camps Josef was incarcerated in was Auschwitz, the deadliest in terms of numbers executed and most widely remembered of the estimated over 15,000 forced labor and death camps established by Nazi Germany and its allies between the years 1933-1945; the twelve years of Hitler’s envisioned ‘Thousand Year Reich’. 

In Remembrance of the Slain

These numbers do not include detention camps, ghettos, incarceration sites and many small camps used for swift, ad-hoc ordered executions of local populations which brings the total to over 44,000 locations.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day recently commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by Soviet troops on January 27th, 1945. This significant day in Shoah (Hebrew for Holocaust) history neither marked the end of the war nor cessation of this genocide.

However, this observance may be the last as the number of survivors who personally experienced the atrocities is dwindling rapidly. These aged survivors are the last remaining eyewitnesses to the horror who can attest firsthand to the inhumanity to man. 

One of Many Families Lost

Josef Lewkowicz was born in a small Polish town outside of Krakow in 1926. His family members were deeply observant Jews who valued education. Not long after September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany seized government control and occupied Poland, his large family was separated and sent to various death camps.

His father died in Auschwitz but the dates and exact whereabouts of the deaths of other relatives are not fully known. Ultimately, Josef was the sole survivor among an extended family of 150 people who perished ranging in age from infants to elderly.

The Butcher of Płaszów

Josef was sent to Kraków-Płaszów, his first labor camp at the age of 16. This SS-operated concentration camp was under the command of Austrian arch-Nazi Amon Göth who earned the epithet “Butcher of Płaszów”. He was one of the most egregiously brutal and infamous of the camp commandants and was later portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List.

He was feared and hated for his sadistic torture, degradation and propensity to kill for perverted personal pleasure. Göth was known for randomly shooting prisoners from interior windows of his residence or while on daily inspections. On numerous occasions, Josef Lewkowicz witnessed him shooting people for “infractions” such as looking directly at him, walking too slowly or not speaking quickly enough during roll call.

Josef had a narrow escape one day when Göth pulled a pistol on him but one of the guards later gloated about saving his life by beating him unconscious while urging the commandant to spare a bullet. Josef suffered permanent hearing damage in one ear after this incident.

Surviving Six Camps

The struggle to stay alive, one harrowing day at a time, was constant as the author survived violence, extreme cold, and starvation rations while witnessing the horrors and mass executions at a total of six camps. It was his unwavering faith, resilience and survival instincts that kept him alive.

Escape was impossible. With its frank and honest accounting of the undeniable atrocities committed at the camps, The Survivor is not an easy book to read.

Following liberation, Josef first became a Nazi Hunter while working with the United States Army Military Police in identifying and bringing war criminals to court and justice. SS leaders, camp commandants, guards and others suspected of complicity in the mass executions were rounded up and detained, fittingly in the former concentration camp Dachau, often disguising themselves as ordinary German POWs.

Bringing a Monster to Justice

It was there Josef Lewkowicz encountered Göth who was masquerading as a low-level functionary, claiming innocence of any crimes. He immediately correctly identified him and corroborated the testimony with that of other former inmates of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. The Butcher of Płaszów was found guilty and hung in 1946.

Josef stated, “I endured hunger, beatings, and torture in six camps and managed to prevail so I could bring a monster to justice.”

He continued to dedicate his life to rounding up former SS leaders, testifying in numerous cases. Always on the side of fairness and justice, Josef met with and introduced Oskar Schindler to several Jewish community leaders. In his estimation, Schindler was a German profiteer who worked within the Nazi regime who chose to help as many Jews as he could.

Also during this time immediately following WWII, Josef is credited with identifying and rescuing 600 orphaned Jewish children and relocating them to Israel. They had been separated at a very young age from their families and hidden in convents, monasteries and orphanages throughout Poland for the duration of the war. Their lives were saved but they remembered little or nothing about their heritage.

A Life Dedicated to Family and Educating Others

Despite being denied a formal education, Josef Lewkowicz was a highly intelligent, learned man who spoke Polish, German, Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish and English. Bereft of family, he was overjoyed when the Red Cross presented him with a letter from a Great-Uncle who had emigrated to Argentina long before the war.

A more normal, happy, fulfilling life began anew after he relocated to South America where he achieved success as a diamond and fine gems dealer before meeting the love of his life. He and his beloved wife Perla were married in 1954, resided in Montreal, Canada and raised three children.

After her death in 2009, he relocated to Jerusalem where he became actively involved with the nonprofit organization JRoots which organizes Jewish educational trips to Poland.

After refraining from talking about the Holocaust for most of his life, Josef Lewkowicz became an important eyewitness. In 2019, he became the subject of a documentary The Survivor’s Revenge delineating his zeal in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.

A Lasting Scar on the World

The Nazis succeeded in murdering six million Jews; two-thirds of Europe’s Jews and one-third of the worldwide Jewish population, as well as killing a similar number of Roma, homosexuals, individuals with physical or mental disabilities, political dissidents and numerous other ordinary citizens for a total estimated to exceed 12 million.

Ninety percent of Poland’s Jewish population was eliminated in less than six years; over 3 million Polish Jews were killed, half of the 6 million who died in the Holocaust at the hands of Nazis abetted by many who supported or worked for them in the camps.

Scattered pogroms and reprisals on Jews returning to their pre-war homes prompted another 100,000 survivors to permanently leave Poland further diminishing what was a thriving Jewish population to about 1% of the total that existed before 1939.

Remembering History — Lest It Repeat Itself

What have we learned? There are warning signs about rising hatred and anti-Semitism worldwide. The atrocities committed during the Nazi regime must never be forgotten nor repeated.

Josef Lewkowicz was and remains a hero among men as well as a voice for all those who could not speak.  Although short in stature, this smiling person was a true giant: a lion-hearted man whose faith, courage, bravery and dedication to pursuing justice, preserving Jewish heritage and educating future generations, has earned a lasting legacy and deserves greater world acclaim.