Branko Lustig Bar Mitzvah Festivities Begin
Branko Lustig has come a long way from his native town of Osijek, Croatia. Born to Croatian-Jewish parents in 1932, most of Lustig's family perished during the Holocaust. Lustig was imprisoned for two years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. After the war, he returned to his native Croatia and became a successful filmmaker. He ultimately moved to the United States and received an Oscar in 1993 for producing, along side Steven Spielberg, the epic film Schindler's List.
Yet despite receiving Oscars for both Schindler's List and Gladiator, Lustig has yearned to obtain one accomplishment that the Nazis prevented him from achieving. Jewish boys traditionally become Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13, but Lustig missed this opportunity. On his 13th birthday, Lustig weighed 66 pounds and was recovering from his two years of captivity in the Nazi concentration camps.
Today, April 4th, Branko Lustig begins his journey to became a Bar Mitzvah. This evening, Lustig will gather with his friends to celebrate this milestone, which will take him back to the very concentration camp where his grandmother and several of his family members were murdered. On Monday, May 2nd, as 10,000 high school students and Holocaust survivors are gathering to begin The March of the Living from Auschwitz to its sub-camp Birkenau, Branko Lustig will read from the Torah. With Israel's Chief Rabbi Meir Lau officiating, Branko Lustig will become a Bar Mitzvah on the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
JLTV will be broadcasting
The March of the Living
LIVE on May 2nd.
