Yakov Kozalchik

Yakov Kozalchik was born in 1902 in Krynica-Zdrój

Kozalchik was born in 1902 in Poland to a family of tanners. He was known for his strength from a young age. He lost both his parents at the age of 8.

At 18 he left Poland for Cuba and worked as a porter at the port of Havana. He later joined a circus as a wrestler and toured the United States, Mexico and Argentina. In 1938 he came back to Poland with an international wrestling group, wore a Star of David on his shirt in the ring, and stayed to start a family.

After the Germans entered his town in 1941, he carried an unexploded bomb out of the town, and they made him commander of the Jewish ghetto police. In November 1942 the ghetto was liquidated, and his wife and 2 children were murdered at Treblinka. In May 1943 he became a Kapo in Block 11 at Auschwitz, and he survived the camp.

In June 1946 he came to the Land of Israel, opened a kiosk in Holon and returned to performing as a strongman under the name Samson Eisen. That year, reports in Haaretz claimed he had collaborated with the Nazis, and Auschwitz survivors testified that he had helped Jews. The rumors harmed his career, and he died at his home in Holon in 1953.