Lancaster County man's story of surviving Holocaust called into question

Lancaster County man's story of surviving Holocaust called into question

The story of a Lancaster County man who claims to have escaped from the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942 is being called into question.

A middle school history teacher from New York state is claiming that Joseph Hirt's amazing tale of survival is just that - a tale. And one of Hirt's relatives is supporting the accusations.

Hirt, who lives near Adamstown, has become a regular at school assemblies and other events across Pennsylvania and beyond, making dozens of appearances in the past decade. In April, he spoke at Boyertown High School.

The story the 90-year-old shares starts with him as a 16-year-old boy, kidnapped by Nazis and whisked off to the death camp in Poland. He stayed there for eight months, Hirt claims, before, starved and beaten, he made a daring escape.

Andrew Reid, a history teacher in the South Lewis Central School District in Turin, N.Y., heard Hirt's story April 15 during a presentation in the auditorium of Lowville Academy and Central School in Lowville, N.Y. Some of the details Hirt shared jumped out to Reid as untrue.

"Several details the person mentioned in his presentation I knew to be historically false," Reid said in an email sent to media outlets Wednesday. "I have spent the past few weeks investigating the man and his claims, and I have uncovered an overwhelming amount of evidence that he is an impostor and a fraud."
Reid said he sent his research and a plea to come clean to Hirt. He also sent his report to media outlets that had covered Hirt's speaking engagements over the past decade.

Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Hirt, after first denying any knowledge of the questions surrounding his story, lashed out at Reid.
"You tell him to get a life and leave me alone," he said. "I don't care for his questions. I'm sick and I'm tired and I'm old and I don't need this crap."
Hirt then hung up the phone.

Reached a second time Wednesday night, Hirt said Reid's claims against him are untrue.

"There's nothing to defend," he said. "I was there, and I don't need to defend it. This is like being forced to defend being raped."

Hirt's nephew, Michael Hirt, who lives in Illinois, said that much of what his uncle has been sharing about his life isn't true.

"His story is essentially correct until the part where he talks about being kidnapped and being taken to Auschwitz," Michael Hirt said in a phone interview Wednesday. "That's where the storytelling begins."

Michael Hirt, who stumbled across his uncle's stories on the internet, said he has confronted his uncle about the false claims.

"He basically said to me, 'I've never said any of those things that have been printed in the stories,' " Michael Hirt said of various newspaper accounts of his uncle's speaking engagements.

Michael Hirt also said his uncle told him that a photo of him showing off a tattoo on his arm of a series of numbers was "Photoshopped."
"He's in complete denial," Michael Hirt said.

Joseph Hirt, when asked about his nephew's remarks, said Michael didn't know what he was talking about.
"He has no knowledge of it; he wasn't even born," he said.

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Inconsistencies

Reid's report provides a point-by-point refutation of several claims made by Hirt during his talk in Lowville, as well as other speaking appearances reported on by the media.

The most troubling of which is that there is no record of the Polish-born Hirt ever being at Auschwitz.
A search of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum website, which includes information on prisoners of the camp, comes up empty when looking for information on Hirt. And the number tattooed on Hirt's arm - which he claims he received at Auschwitz - corresponds with a man named Kazimierz Sikorski, who arrived at the camp in September 1944.

As for Hirt's claim of escaping Auschwitz, Reid claims that is also a lie. Reid said records show only one escape from the camp during the months surrounding Hirt's alleged departure, and that person was not Hirt.

Hirt has also made a claim that, while at the camp, he came face-to-face with Dr. Joseph Mengele. But, Reid points out, Mengele only arrived at Auschwitz in May 1943, more than a year after Hirt's claimed escape date.

A prop Hirt is known to use during his presentation - which he pulled out during his visit to Boyertown - is a black-and-white photo of an emaciated man on a stretcher. Hirt claims the photo is of him shortly before he made his escape.

But as Reid explains, a quick Google search for Mickey Martins, a member of the 42nd Infantry "Rainbow" Division of the U.S. Army, shows that Martin took the photo during the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

Reid's report debunks a number of other claims, including that he attended the 1936 Berlin Olympics and saw Adolf Hitler refuse to shake hands with American Olympian Jesse Owens (an event that, despite the mythology, didn't happen) and that, as a refugee staying in Fort Ontario, N.Y., he met and befriended then-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Hirt on Wednesday night admitted that the number tattooed on his arm was not his own identification number. He instead said it was the identification number of "a person that means a lot to me."

However, the identification number belongs to a man, Sikorski, who arrived at Auschwitz more than two years after Hirt claims to have escaped. In other media accounts of his lectures, Hirt refers to the tattoo as his own identification number.

Hirt hung up the phone before answering questions about the photo or other claims Reid has made.
Reid wrote in his report that he does think at least part of Hirt's story is true.

"First, I do believe Mr. Hirt escaped from Europe during World War II and arrived in the United States as one of the 982 refugees granted 'guest' status at the Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y.," he wrote. "This fact that he is one of less than 1,000 people to have been taken in by the U.S. during this episode of history - very few of whom are still alive - is in itself an amazing story."

But Reid added the parts that Hirt has lied about demand to be brought to light.

"I believe Mr. Hirt should have an opportunity to publicly retract his claims and admit his fraud," he wrote. "I appeal to Mr. Hirt to make things right - admit the truth, ask for forgiveness and cease involvement in public presentations."

Michael Hirt also questioned why his uncle felt the need to fabricate a story when the truth was already an amazing saga.
"The real story is actually a fantastic story," he said.

Michael Hirt said his uncle, along with his father and grandparents, did flee from Poland to Belgrade. They were forced to also flee Belgrade when the Germans began to bomb the city, eventually ending up in Italy.

In Italy, they were "rescued" by Americans in 1944 and taken to Oswego, Michael Hirt said.

"I think he has a great story to tell on his own, the real story, it's a fabulous story," Michael Hirt said. "Why he felt the need to embellish that story is beyond me."

Michael Hirt said he hasn't seen his uncle in about 15 years and only speaks to him once every several years. His father, also named Michael, speaks to his older brother about once a year, he said.

Other suspicions

According to Phil Specht, the Boyertown teacher who reached out to Jospeh Hirt to speak at Boyertown High School, Hirt was paid a $250 honorarium for his appearance. Specht said he also personally gave Hirt $200 to help with a move from his home in Ephrata.
Specht, who first saw Hirt speak at a church in Emmaus about two years ago, said Hirt's talk was so good he simply had to get him to speak at Boyertown.

Specht said he was a bit skeptical of some of the things Hirt claimed but didn't really think that he could be a fraud.

"Some of the things he was saying were just out of this world impossible," Specht said. "But it was the same routine story every time I heard him speak."

Specht was especially skeptical of the photo Hirt said was of him at 70 pounds in the camp.

"I had a hard time believing that photo was him, but if it gives him comfort, then I let it go," Specht said. "I'm typically a skeptic of a lot of things anyway."

Specht also said the car ride from Hirt's home to the school struck him as odd.

"One of the things that are curious is that I picked him up at his home and talked with him for an hour or more when I drove him to our school," he said.

Specht said Hirt was very hesitant to talk about his experience in the Holocaust.

"He didn't want to talk about anything to do with the Holocaust, which I can understand because of the sensitivity of it," he said. "But I was kind of curious that he wouldn't be open with me because I'm not threatening."

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Q: why does every Jew say they met Mengele?

A: because they count on the goys with the knowledge to question their stories being terrified into silence.

What chutzpah!

I'm reminded of this liar.

Her claims are completely debunked in "Questioning the Holocaust: Why we Believed"

This type of brainwashing is common throughout the Western world.

This example of jews self-policing their tribe by publicly calling out the bullshit of other jews is a welcome trend.

We'll gas this one last.

I knew that was going to show up eventually.

Apparently every jew alive at the time met, and narrowly escaped from, the clutches of the omnipresent doctor.