Michael Smuss, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland who resisted the Nazis, has died aged 99 in Israel.
He joined the ghetto uprising as a teenager in 1943, helping to make petrol bombs. Taken prisoner, he survived concentration camps and a death march before the end of World War II.
After the war, he became an artist and Holocaust educator. The embassies of Germany and Poland in Israel paid tribute to him on social media.
He repeatedly risked his life during the Holocaust, fighting for survival and helping other prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto – even after he was captured by the Nazis and deported to concentration camps, the German embassy stated on X.
The Polish embassy said Smuss lectured youth on the history of Polish Jews and expressed his memories through art. His legacy endures.
Last month, Germany's ambassador to Israel awarded Smuss with the German Federal Cross of Merit, in recognition of his contribution to Holocaust education and promoting dialogue between the two countries, the embassy said.
Smuss was born in 1926 in the Free City of Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland. He later moved to Lodz before being deported to the Warsaw Ghetto with his father, where he faced extreme conditions alongside hundreds of thousands of others.
Upon joining the resistance in the ghetto, he and others began making petrol bombs to defend against the Nazis. He described the tremendous struggle during the uprising and his subsequent capture.
After enduring severe hardships during the war, including the loss of family members, he moved to the US and eventually settled in Israel in 1979, where he devoted his later years to art and Holocaust education.
Michael Smuss is survived by his wife and leaves behind a legacy of bravery and commitment to remembering the past.
