ANN ARBOR—Simha “Kazik” Rotem, the man who, at age 19 in 1943, masterminded and led the rescue of 60-70 members of the Jewish Fighting Force through the sewer canal system during the last days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, will deliver the eighth University of Michigan Wallenberg Lecture. His lecture, “The Struggle to Survive—Personal Reflections,” will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday (Nov. 19) in the Rackham Auditorium.

Operating under the “Aryan” code name “Kazik” and posing as a non-Jew, Rotem was head courier for the Jewish underground. This stratagem, though risky, afforded him freedom of movement and influence. On occasion, he even posed as a member of the Nazi Gestapo or as a Polish anti-Semite to secure the cooperation he needed from recalcitrant or frightened Jews and Poles. He delivered money, documents, publications and weapons. After the destruction of the Ghetto, he fought with the Poles in the Home Army and the People’s Army (the Polish Communists) and continued to aid the remaining Jews in Warsaw. In 1946, Rotem made his way to Israel where he is now CEO of a supermarket chain.

Rotem has published his wartime experiences in “Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter: The Past Within Me” (Yale University Press, 1994). Rotem also will receive the U-M’s Wallenberg Medal, which honors those who exemplify the motto, “One person can make a difference.” A reception will follow the lecture in the Rackham Assembly Hall. Rotem’s visit is sponsored by the University Wallenberg Foundation and the Hillel Foundation of Ann Arbor.