Salamo Arouch, a Greek-Jewish boxer who survived Auschwitz by fighting against fellow prisoners, has died in a nursing home in Israel aged 86. He had been a boxing star in his hometown of Salonika before being deported in 1943 to the Auschwitz death camp. Arouch has said he won 208 fights and had two draws during his time in the camp. Each fight continued until one of the competitors died either from the fight or by the gun of a Nazi soldier. In 1945 he was transferred to Bergen-Belsen until he was liberated by Allied forces.
In Israel, Arouch was known as Shlomo. He boxed there as an amateur after fighting in Israel's War of Independence, then opened a shipping and removal business in Tel Aviv. Arouch's literal fight for survival was the basis for the 1989 movie 'Triumph of the Spirit,' directed by Robert Young.
