Description
To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, AFP meets with survivors around the world. "There was a great and urgent need to find a vaccine for hepatitis. That's when they chose us for experiments," says 93-year-old Hirsz Litmanowicz, a Holocaust survivor who was deported to both Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen.
Born on July 20, 1931, in Bedzin, Poland, Litmanowicz was nearly 12 years old when he was deported to Auschwitz. He spent two months there before being relocated to Sachsenhausen in Germany, where he was chosen for experiments in developing the hepatitis B vaccine. Two years later, on May 4, 1945, he arrived in Lübeck after enduring a 15-day "death march" organized by the fleeing SS. He was liberated there by British soldiers.
Today, he lives in Peru, while most of his four children, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren reside in Israel. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES