Quick Facts
| Intro | Tunisian boxer |
| A.K.A. | Victor "Young" Perez |
| Was | Athlete Boxer |
| From | Tunisia |
| Field | Sports |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 18 October 1911, Tunis, Tunis Governorate, Tunisia |
| Death | 22 January 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp, Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland (aged 33 years) |
Biography
Victor "Young" Perez (October 18, 1911 – January 22, 1945) was a Tunisian Jewish boxer, who became the World Flyweight Champion in 1931 and 1932.
Perez was denounced to the Occupation authorities and arrested in Paris on September 21, 1943 and detained in the Drancy internment camp before being transported to the German extermination camp of Auschwitz where he was assigned to the Monowitz subcamp to serve as a slave laborer for I.G. Farben at the Buna-Werke. He was killed on January 22, 1945 on the death march from Monowitz to Gleiwitz.
Early life
He was born to Khmaïssa Perez, a household goods salesman, and Khaïlou René Perez. He was raised along with his four siblings in Dar-El Berdgana, the Jewish quarter of Tunis. He started training as a boxer at age 14 along with his older brother Benjamin “Kid” Perez to emulate his idol Battling Siki, a boxing champion from Senegal. Perez had a brief relationship with French-Italian actress Mireille Balin of Monaco.
Boxing career
Perez won the French Flyweight title in Paris in 1930, defeating Kid Oliva from Marseille. On October 24, 1931, he won the International Boxing Union and National Boxing Association (NBA) World Flyweight crown by knocking out Frankie Genaro in the second round. He was the youngest world champion in boxing history.
He lost the title the next year to Jackie Brown. He moved to the bantamweight class. In February 1934, he was defeated by "Panama" Al Brown in an attempt at the bantamweight title. He retired from boxing in December 1938 with a record of 92 wins (28 of them knockouts), 26 losses, and 15 draws.
Auschwitz
Perez arrived at the German death camp of Auschwitz on October 10, 1943, as part of "Transport 60" a group of 1,000 prisoners shipped from Drancy internment camp, France. He was held in AuschwitzIII/Monowitz.While there he was forced to participate in boxing matches for the amusement of the Germans. By 1945, Perez was one of just 31 survivors of the original 1,000.
Perez was one of the prisoners on the death march that left the camp on January 18, 1945. He was reported as being killed on January 22, 1945.
Perez was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.
