Emanuel Litvinoff, 89, survivor, in the gym.

Emanuel Litvinoff, who died a fortnight ago aged 96, was a poet, playwright, novelist, factory labourer, soldier, human rights campaigner, and all-round 20th century mensch. Since he passed away he's had a lead obituary in the London Times, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Independent. A former Israeli ambassador to America called him "one of the greatest unsung heroes of the twentieth century... who won in the fight against an evil empire".

But in spite of all this he was very humble. For most of my life he was living in obscurity; he didn't care what people thought about him. He was born into poverty and was homeless as a teenager in the Depression; and for nearly fifty years - half his life - inhabited the same small, rented, one bedroom apartment.

He was a great advocate of exercise and looking after oneself. I filmed one of his thrice weekly gym sessions when I was 18, and he was 89. I hope that it inspires you to look after yourselves. If you do, maybe you will also live to 96.

As a tribute to him I've set up a YouTube channel full of the stories he used to tell me. Please share and subscribe.


Emanuel Litvinoff: "My parent's flight from Russia saved me, my seven brothers and one sister from the Holocaust of starvation and Nazism. I am connected to these tragedies with the guilt and obsession of a survivor"

From a personal film made in 2004.
Copyright Aaron Litvinoff all rights reserved.

www.emanuel-litvinoff.com

Emanuel Litvinoff's memoirs of growing up in the Jewish East End of London, "Journey Through A Small Planet", out now in Penguin Classics
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0141189304

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