13 Facts About Ben Helfgott

Sir Benjamin "Ben" Helfgott was a Polish-born British Holocaust survivor, Olympian and champion weightlifter.

Ben Helfgott was one of two Jewish athletes known to have competed in the Olympics after surviving the Holocaust, along with Alfred Nakache, a French champion swimmer and water polo player.

Ben Helfgott was 9 years old when Germany invaded the country in 1939.

Ben Helfgott was liberated in 1945, but was very weak.

Ben Helfgott was among 732 orphan refugees under the age of 16 brought to England after the war by CBF World Jewish Relief after being liberated from Theresienstadt; he formed a part of the initial 300 arrivals and thus of the group known as The Windermere Children who were sent to Troutbeck Bridge on arrival.

Ben Helfgott represented Great Britain in weightlifting in the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia.

Ben Helfgott was the captain of the British weightlifting teams at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Ben Helfgott won the gold medal in the lightweight class at the 1950,1953 and 1957 Maccabiah Games.

Ben Helfgott married Arza in 1966, with whom he then had three sons and nine grandchildren.

Ben Helfgott had begun a course at the University of Southampton in 1948 but dropped out after a year and thereafter was partner in a business manufacturing dresses.

Ben Helfgott was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Birthday Honours, for services to community relations.

In 2012, at a Limmud convention in Nazareth Illit organized to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, Ben Helfgott was awarded a prize by the mayor.

In October 2020, Ben Helfgott was awarded the Pride of Britain award by Stephen Fry; the 2020 event was held at the Holocaust Memorial in Hyde Park because of the coronavirus pandemic.