Incredible story of boxer forced to fight 'death matches' for extra food at Auschwitz

Harry Haft was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp when he was just 16 years old, but was given special treatment after a German SS guard noticed his athletic physique and trained him to box starving inmates

One of the lesser known atrocities of the Holocaust involved Jewish men being forced to beat each other to death - all for the amusement of the cruel Nazi guards.

Unlike the horrors of the gas chambers, widespread starvation, and the beatings, the story of Harry Haft is much less known. Harry, who was just 16 years old when he was arrested for being Jewish, survived the death camp by following a simple rule given to him by the guards - kill or be killed.

In total, Harry fought 76 of the twisted "death matches" during his time in Auschwitz-Birkenau, before managing to escape and eventually fight professionally in the US.

Harry's story was shared this week by entrepreneur and investor Terry Kim, who explained how Harry was arrested in 1941, before being loaded on to a train bound for Auschwitz.

While at the death camp, an SS officer called Schneider saw potential due to his physical build, so offered him the chance of extra rations and better treatment if he'd "box for the entertainment of the Nazi officers".

Every Sunday afternoon, a new challenger would be brought to the ring, and both men would fight. But unlike a regular boxing match which might leave the loser with a few bumps and bruises, and a wounded ego, the loser of the Auschwitz contests were usually sent to the gas chamber. There were other differences too. The opponents wouldn't have gloves, gumshields or protective headwear to cushion the blows - they were forced to fight bare-knuckled=, without even a rest between rounds and no rules other than you had to kill the other fighter.

The guards are said to have treated Harry like their "prized animal", giving him extra food rations and better living quarters than the hundreds of prisoners stuffed into each dingey dormitory. The pay off was that he had to kill his Jewish brothers, who were usually already dying from starvation.

In 1945 Harry was no longer of value to the guards and was being taken to his place of execution on a "death march", when he killed one of them and fled into the Bohemian Forest. He eventually made it to America, where he became a professional fighter. According to reports, he had hoped his fame would help find the family and a fiancee he lost during the war.

He was getting ready to take on future heavyweight Rocky Marciano when the mafia told him he would have to take a fall. After his brief boxing career, he hung up the gloves and became a fruit vendor in Brooklyn. While he appeared to move on, getting married and having children, he was still consumed by PTSD from the 76 lives he'd taken. When he finally opened up to tell the story to his adult son Alan, he said: "My regrets are the lives that passed through these hands."