(Jewish Group) Liviu Beris, Romanian Holocaust survivor who became a genetics pioneer dies at 93

[Behind the Aegis]

Liviu Beris, Romanian Holocaust survivor who became a genetics pioneer and debated a famous antisemite on TV, dies at 93

Liviu Beris, who survived the Holocaust in Transnistria to become an internationally recognized geneticist, died last week at 93 in Romania, where he tirelessly shared his personal story with younger generations and famously debated an antisemite on live TV.

Born in Herta, then a part of Romania and now a part of Ukraine, Beris was deported at the age of 13 with his family to the region of Transnistria, a strip of land in Soviet Ukraine under the administration of the Nazi-allied Romanian regime. According to official figures, between 220,000 and 300,000 Soviet and Romanian Jews were shot dead or died of typhus, starvation and extreme weather conditions in improvised camps and ghettos there run by Romanian officials.

Upon his return to Romania in 1943 — ruler Ion Antonescu allowed some Jews to be repatriated during the war — Beris had to start his education over, after suffering acute memory loss induced by the trauma of his experiences in Transnistria. But he excelled in his studies and went on to become a leading engineer and researcher in the genetics field. Scientific papers credit him with the creation of a swine breed called Peris 345, after the village in Romania where his research institution was located.

Due to his involvement in the development of Romanian zootechnics, Beris was repeatedly denied a passport to travel abroad by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who considered him a key asset and feared he might defect. While other Romanian Holocaust survivors were allowed to leave the country, Beris was barred from attending international remembrance events until Ceausescu’s execution in 1989, which ended communism in Romania.

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