Image by YouTube

Martin Gray, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor whose memoir about his experiences during World War II inspired a successful TV miniseries, has died at 93.

Gray was found in the swimming pool of his second home in Ciney, Belgium, but officials said no foul play was suspected, the BBC reported.

In 1971, the Warsaw native born as Mietek Grayewski published “For Those I Loved,” a best-selling autobiography about life in the ghetto, his escape from the death camp Treblinka and his experiences fighting in the Soviet army. The book also addressed the 1970 death of his wife and four children in a house fire.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Written in French with a co-author, “For Those I Loved” was translated into 26 languages and sold 30 million copies, according to the BBC. The miniseries aired in Europe in 1985.

The book was not without controversy, however, with some critics deriding it as a hoax. However, Nazi hunter Serge Klarfeld told Agence France Press that he believed Gray’s story.

According to the European Jewish Press, Gray immigrated to the United States in 1946. He later moved to southern France and then Belgium.

“Martin Gray was a monument who tried to promote democracy with the experiences of his life,” said the mayor of Ciney, Jean-Marie Cheffert, the BBC reported. “He was a charming man and a great humanist.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount