Sim Kessel

Sim Kessel was born to a Jewish family in Paris, France. He became a professional boxer. When Nazi Germany invaded his country in World War II, he served in the French army; after being demobilized, he joined the Resistance. His assignments included obtaining and transporting weapons between the so-called free zone and the occupied zone. He was arrested in Dijon by the Gestapo on July 20, 1942, a few days short of his 23rd birthday. He was tortured to confess his activities and contacts, but denied everything. Kessel spent nine months in the notorious transit camp at Drancy and then was deported to the Auschwitz death camp in July 1943. After a failed escape attempt in December 1944, he was the last of the condemned prisoners to be hanged in a public execution -- but the rope broke. Unconscious, Kessel was rescued at the last minute by a kapo who had also been a professional boxer, who gave him a new uniform. Officially, Kessel was now dead, and another body was put in the crematorium ovens in place of his. He survived two death marches westward and other dangers before being liberated by U.S. troops in May 1945. Kessel published his memoir Perdu à Auschwitz in 1970. It was translated into English and published in 2001 as Hanged at Auschwitz, with an introduction by Holocaust scholar Walter Laqueur.