H eadlines
Survivor Michael Herskovitz Dies at 92
OB ITUARY
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
MICHAEL HERSKOVITZ, a
Holocaust survivor who spent
the latter portion of his life
speaking to audiences around
the world about his experi-
ences, died on May 30 at the
age of 92.

The Holocaust Awareness
Museum and Education Center
in Elkins Park released a state-
ment mourning Herskovitz,
who was a part of the institu-
tion for years and served on
its board.

“We at HAMEC are so
grateful that he devoted his
time to educate so many
students over the years about
what happened to him and
his family because of unbri-
dled hatred he faced as a young
man,” the statement read.

Herskovitz spoke about
his experiences at the White
House, before Congress, the
Navy and countless students.

Herskovitz was born in
Botfalva, Czechoslovakia, to
Pearl and Joseph Herskovitz,
owners of the only grocery
store in a small village with
no radio. (Today, Botfalva is
located in Ukraine). He was
one of five children.

During the years of the
German occupation
of Czechoslovakia, laws publicly
marking Jews and restricting
their freedoms piled on.

Herskovitz’s father, who wore
a yarmulke and a beard, was
beaten so severely outside of
his grocery store by German
soldiers that he was forced to
close it soon after. As many as
277,000 Jews are estimated to
have been murdered during the
occupation and, in 1943, the
entire Herskovitz family was
sent to Auschwitz.

Over the next few years,
Herskovitz was shuttled
between camps, sometimes
forced into labor, as at
Mauthausen, and sometimes
simply fenced in, as at
Gunskirchen. When he was
liberated in 1945, Herskovitz,
sick with typhus, weighed
under 100 pounds. Reunited
with an uncle, Herskovitz
learned that his brother, Ernest
and his two sisters, Helen and
Malvina, had survived, but that
his mother, father and little
brother, Belala, were killed.

Herskovitz spent a few years
in Canada with friends of his
parents before he left for Israel.

Michael and Tonya
Herskovitz on
Michael’s 88th
birthday. Courtesy of
Tonya Herskovitz
See Obituary, Page 24
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