With the Olympics to commence in a few days, an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor named Leon Lewkowicz carried the torch to the Vel d’Hiv Memorial Garden as part of the grand lead up to the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. With Israeli athletes receiving a multitude of death threats, this moment serves as a glimmer of light and hope for Jews worldwide.
For Leon, this was a culminating moment where he fulfilled his lifelong dream. Leon was born in Lodz Poland in 1930. When he was ten years old he was sent to the Warsaw ghetto and four years later, at the age of 14, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Miraculously, he survived the camp and Death March. He arrived in France in June of 1945 at the age of 15 weighing only 72 lbs. Emaciated but emancipated, he was determined to create a new life for himself. He did not yet know how, but promised himself that never again would he allow himself to be defeated by being terrorised and called a dirty Jew.
Leon was one of 426 children, (alongside Elie Wiesel and Meir Lau) who were brought into the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE), a French Jewish children’s aid society. It was there that he met Maurice Brauch, an athletic coach who organised intramural competitions. Maurice also survived the camps and taught Leon gymnastics and how to lift weights. Leon was a fast learner and was quickly able to accomplish incredible feats including carrying a girl in the air at arm’s length. Exercising was a healthy outlet and mental escape from his past, and served as his way of building resilience and both physical and mental strength he needed to survive. Leon felt that if he could become strong, no one would be able to hurt him again. With great determination, the young man lifted weights consistently. At the age of 19, he became the strongest man in France and in 1955 he became the French weightlifting champion. He was unable to participate in the Olympic Games at that time because he was still not a French Citizen. But Léon dreamed of carrying the Olympic torch.
At the age of 94, his dream became a reality and his life came full circle when he marched with the torch from the Bir-hakeim metro station to the Vel d’Hiv Memorial Garden. This garden commemorates the 4,000 Parisian children who were murdered in Auschwitz. The memorial garden is located on the site of the Vel d’Hiv, a huge sports facility officially named Velodrome d’Hiver that was a site of massive roundup of 13,000 Jews, including 4000 children, who were placed in hellish conditions to be delivered to the Nazi killing machine. Marching by this infamous site with torch in hand, Leon stoked the fire of revenge – the revenge of life. Throngs of spectators came to support him and he was met with a roaring applause. His audience included OSE employees and at-risk children from non-profit organisation “the Maison Shatta and Bouli Simon in Laversine.”
His torch symbolised peace, unity and sportsmanship. Leon carried it with pride, serving as a beacon of light for every Jew around the world. May he continue to live in health, strength and happiness until 120!
