Otto Adler

Otto Adler is the president of the Jewish Association of Romania,[1] a Holocaust survivor and a polyglot. He can speak fluently in Romanian, Hebrew, English, French, German, Hungarian and Russian.

Early life

He was born in 1929 into a large Jewish family from Cluj.[2] In 1953 he graduated at the Mechanical Faculty from the Politehnica University of Bucharest where he taught until 1994. During 1961 - 1991 he worked at the Metallurgic Research Institute from Bucharest.

World War II

During World War II Otto Adler was a prisoner at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. He was 15 years old when he arrived at the camp but despite a frail appearance managed to avoid certain death by answering that his real age was 17 when asked by the guards. This advice was received from the other inmates because everyone under the age of 13 was sent to the gas chamber along with those under 17 years which weren't considered physically fit. He weighed 70 kg when he arrived, but had only 29 kg when he left the camp.[3]

After the war

He was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania in 2007.[4] When talking about antisemitism in Romania Mr Adler declared:[4]

I can honestly say that there is still anti-Semitism in Romania. And this in the condition that there are about 8,000 Jews in the country!

References
  1. http://jewish.ro/html/asociatia_evreilor_din_romania.html
  2. http://www.romanianjewish.org/ro/Marturie2.html
  3. http://www.theinvestor.ro/red-carpet/conf-univ-dr-ing-otto-adler-presedintele-asociatiei-evreilor-din-romania-victime-ale-holocaustului-la-vita-e-bella/
  4. http://www.survivors-romania.org/pdf_doc/2_otto_adler.pdf


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