He was born on September 30, 1928, to a Jewish family in Romania. At the age of 15 he was deported to the Auschwitz Nazi camp.
He was tattooed there with the number A-7713, which remained throughout his life as a living memory of the horrors he endured. His mother and younger sister were killed in Auschwitz while he, his father and two older sisters survived.
In 1945, his father also died at the Buchenwald Nazi camp, while he and his sisters managed to survive. After the release, all three were sent to a French orphanage.
