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 social media.
The Polish embassy noted that Smuss lectured youth on the history of Polish Jews and expressed his memories through art. His legacy endures.
The Polish embassy and the Holocaust Educational Trust, a UK charity, called Smuss the last surviving fighter of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. However, previous reports named Simcha Rotem as the last survivor.
In September, Germany's ambassador to Israel awarded Smuss with the German Federal Cross of Merit, acknowledging his contributions to Holocaust education and fostering dialogue.
Smuss was born in 1926 in the Free City of Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, and later moved to Lodz before being deported to the Warsaw Ghetto with his father.
While in the ghetto, facing dire conditions, Smuss joined the Jewish Resistance and helped create petrol bombs in preparation for the uprising, which began on April 19, 1943. The resistance lasted for 28 days against overwhelming odds.
Smuss was captured on April 29, subsequently enduring transport to the Treblinka extermination camp before finding himself offered as a laborer instead.
Following his liberation, Smuss settled first in Poland, then the US, before finally moving to Israel in 1979, where he dedicated himself to art and Holocaust education. He is survived by his wife.
