Memory and Education- The Incredible Story of Yakov Kozalchik

Yakov Kozalchik was born in Poland and was known in his town as a child with extraordinary physical strength. At age 7, he carried a bucket of water from the town well to his parents' house with his teeth. At the age of 8 he became an orphan, but managed to take care of himself. At the age of 14 he fought off antisemitic rioters by himself.

 

He was 18 when he left Poland to join his relatives in Cuba, where he worked as a porter in the port of Havana. In the evenings, he participated in rope-pulling performances against dozens of people. After that, he moved to the United States, joined a wrestling circus, and toured throughout America. In 1932 Kozalchik (now known as Jacob) worked in New York for the mobster Al Capone. In ‘36, when the famous German boxer Max Schmeling came to America to fight Joe Lewis (as a representative of Nazi Germany), Jacob was hired to be Schmeling’s bodyguard.

 

The American circus came to perform in Poland in 1938. Jacob returned home at the age of 36, married a woman from his Jewish town, and left the circus to settle down. In 1941, the Germans entered the town of Krynki, where he was born and lived. When a 100kg bomb that was not detonated was found in one of the town's houses, Kozalchik picked it up and carried it out of the city. The Germans called him "Bombantrager" - "the subject of bombs" and appointed him commander of the ghetto's Jewish police. He tried and managed to save Jews by paying bribes to the Germans, taking advantage of this role. Finally, in November 1942, the Krynki ghetto was liquidated. All the Jews, including Kozalczyk's wife and two small children, were sent to extermination in Treblinka.

 

Yakov himself was sent to Auschwitz, where he was forced to become a Capo. Even in this terrible role, he tried to help the Jews as much as possible. Because of his power and ability to twist railway tracks, the Jews called him "Samson - Eisen" - Samson (the hero) made of iron (in Yiddish).

 

Yakov survived Auschwitz, immigrated to Israel in June 1946, and opened a kiosk in Holon. Shortly after, he began to participate in entertainment shows where he demonstrated his power. His stage name was, of course, "Samson Eisen." He quickly became famous, but then bits of rumors started to spread around, both in Israel and abroad. Articles published about him portrayed him as an abusive capo. Poland and Czechoslovakia requested his extradition.

 

Yakov Kozalchik tried to gather testimonies of Auschwitz survivors for his support, but his name had already been destroyed. His wife left him, he suffered from depression and spent most of the day sleeping. At age 51, in 1953, he died of a broken heart. Kozalchik was buried in Kiryat Shaul, alone. No one bothered to place a gravestone on his grave.

 

One man, Meir Eldar, who survived Auschwitz thanks to Kozalchik self-published a book about Kozalchik’s figure, trying to clear his name. Someone read his book, and In 2005, a tombstone was laid on Kozalchik's grave at the initiative of Amir Haskel, a researcher of the Holocaust and an Air Force Pilot. In 2006, Itzik Shaked, then 60, discovered the existence of his father, Yaakov Kozalchik. Up until then, he believed he was an orphan, as his mother told him. In 2015 he made a film about his father as a last-ditch effort to clear his name.

 

The story of Kozalchik is not the only one. After its establishment, the State of Israel prosecuted and jailed dozens of Holocaust survivors who had served as camp kapos or ghetto police under the Nazis. The Melton Centre dedicates a series of professional learning days for the topic of “memory and education”. On the 24th of April, Hebrew University professor Dan Porat will bring to light more than three dozen little-known trials, held between the years 1950 and 1972, of survivors charged with Nazi collaboration. The event will take place on zoom, registration is free - Sign up in advance! Full program and registration for professional learning days can be found here >>> https://drive.google.com/.../1j-Lb6StqBV1u8AWA9.../view

 

In the photos: Yaakov Kozalchik immigrating to Israel On the ship "Birya", 1946; Amir Haskel reading Kadish on Kozalchik’s grave.