Gilles Peress | The Lonka Project on photographing Holocaust survivors around the world Ryszard Horowitz was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1939. Four months later, Ryszard's entire family were forced into concentration camps following the German invasion of Poland. From September 1944 he (...)
was imprisoned at Auschwitz and later became known as being among the youngest known people to survive Auschwitz concentration camp and to be listed on Schindler's list. He was the youngest survivors of Auschwitz when it was liberated in January 1945. At the war's end, five-year old Ryszard was reunited with his family when his mother found him in an orphanage. Fourteen members of his family survived the Holocaust thanks to Oskar Schindler and they were amongst the few Jewish families to re-establish themselves in Krakw. Ryszard began taking pictures at the age of fourteen. For a brief period of time during his childhood he grew up alongside Roman Polanski with whom he created his first photographic enlarger from cardboard. Ryszard immigrated to the USA in 1959. © Gilles Peress | Magnum Photos