The Boxer, true story of Harry Haft , Holocaust Survivor

THE BOXER
THE TRUE STORY OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR HARRY HAFT

Writer/Artist: Reinhard Kleist

OUT NOW

Published by SelfMadeHero

US Sales & Distro by Abrams Books • UK Sales & Distro Abrams & Chronicle Books

200pp Paperback with flaps • B&W • US $22.95 / CAN $28.95 • UK £14.99 • ISBN: 9781906838775

Separated from his family in Nazi-occupied Poland and plunged into the horror and degradation of the concentration camps, young Hertzko Haft found himself forced into life-or-death boxing matches by his SS captors. His battles took him to the end of the Second World War and–against all the odds–liberation. Chasing a rumour to post-war America, Hertzko became Harry and traded desperation for professional boxing–all to send a message to a long-lost friend.

Reinhard Kleist’s vivid and expressive storytelling shows us two halves of a divided life, and the common thread running through them both. Contrasting the privations of wartime with the possibilities of a new life across the ocean, The Boxer tells the incredible true story of Haft’s struggle against experiences that would shape the rest of his life.

–       This graphic novel was based on the book by Alan Scott Haft, the eldest son of Hertzko (Harry) Haft: Harry Haft: Auschwitz Survivor, Challenger of Rocky Marciano [Syracuse University Press, 2006].

–       On 27 April 2022, the Barry Levinson-directed movie The Survivor (also based on the book, Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano by Alan Haft) written by Justine Juel Gillmer, starring Ben Foster as Harry Haft and featuring Vicky Krieps, Billy Magnussen, Peter Sarsgaard, Saro Emirze, Dar Zuzovsky, Danny DeVito, and John Leguizamo premieres on HBO.

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