Martin Gray

Martin Gray , born Mietek Grayewski , is a writer Jewish French-speaking person, of Polish origin, born with Warsaw on April 27th, 1922.

It is known to be one of the rare Jewish deportees of the Nazi camps having been able to escape, life which it described in its book In the name of all mine .

Biography

At the beginning of the Second world war, on September 1st, 1939, it is seventeen years old when the " bourreaux" , Nazis, invade the Poland.

Smuggler

Transferred in the Ghetto from Warsaw where his/her father works with the Judenrat , it finds the means of leaving there while bribing soldiers Nazis and becomes thus a smuggler. Several times per day, it makes return tickets to bring back food in the ghetto thanks to the trams. At the time of a raid, his/her father is caught to be off-set. Thanks to his knowledge, Martin saves the life to him by helping it to escape.

Deportee

Later his/her mother, her two brothers and itself are off-set with Treblinka, where his/her mother and her brothers are exterminated immediately. Taking into account its physical health it is not killed, and works in various kommandos , of which the Sonderkommando S , which are charged to extract the bodies from the gas chambers. It succeeds in escaping from this sector and working again in the sectors of reception of the deportees.

Escape from the death camp

He works then in a kommando charged to sort the linen and to charge it in the coaches. He can thus flee of Treblinka while camouflaging himself in a coach. From night, it is thrown out of the train and crosses various villages where it informs the population of what occurs to Treblinka, but nobody believes it.

Return to the ghetto of Warsaw

With its return, it with the immense joy to find his/her father, that he believed dead, but which will be shot in front of his eyes, a few days afterwards.

The Red Army

It joined then the Red Army where it finishes the war, and goes on Berlin the April 30th 1945.

Emigration in the United States

After the war, it decides to go to join his large maternal mother with New York in 1947. During twelve years, it there works and becomes an important business man but remains alone until the meeting of his Dina wife in 1959.

Forest fire of Tanneron

The October 3rd 1970, at the time of the fire of the Tanneron, it loses his wife and her four children. At the edge of the suicide, it receives an anonymous phone call, at his place, saying: it is well done for you, salts Jewish . After this call, it decides to fight to become a witness and finds once again the force to survive and the writing becomes then for him a Thérapie.

Foundation Dined Gray

Baiting itself to make live the memory as of his, it founded the Fondation Dined Gray with ecological vocation, charged with fighting against forest fires and for the protection of the Man through his framework of life.

Remarriage

Since, Martin Gray remarié himself and is father of five children.

President of the Arch of Defense

Martin Gray was the president of the Arch of Defense to Paris during several years. (1989-2001)

Establishment in Belgium

In 2001, after more than forty years spent with Tanneron, Martin Gray settles in Belgium, with Brussels. At its age, it could not live any more in the countryside and sought a place of culture but Paris was too large for him.

Current events

One could see it in the emission Vivement Sunday on France 2, a few months ago. Martin Gray currently devotes himself to his new book and parallel to continues to give conferences throughout the world. He lives today in the south of France, where his/her Jonathan son is chairman of a prestigious event-driven company which specializes in the very top-of-the-range service. Martin Gray will be at the La Rochelle to give a conference in January 2008 and in Paris soon.

Witness

In spite of a dozen works published, Martin Gray known as not to regard itself as writer, but rather as a witness. “I do not write, I shout” affirm it in a recent interview. He is not only one guard of the memory: he continues to believe in a world righter. He is member of the committee of sponsorship of the French Coordination for the Decade of the culture of peace and non-violence.

Quotations

“The man, whatever it is, carries in him the fury assassinates animal. ” ( In the name of all the men )

“There is no tiredness for that which creates. ”

Distinctions

2007 : citizen of honor of the commune of Uccle, in Belgium.

Random links: