Willi Bleicher became a communist in his youth. In 1936 he was arrested in Stuttgart and sentenced for alleged preparation for high treason. After his time in prison, he was transferred in October 1938 to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he soon became a member of the illegal camp committee, which brought together political prisoners of many nationalities. In 1943/44 Bleicher was deployed in the camp’s personal effects store.
In August 1944 he saw a Jewish child, Stefan Jerzy Zweig from Kraków, who had been brought to Buchenwald with his father. Knowing that children were at particular risk, Bleicher took him into his care and hid him in the clothing store. He was supported by fellow prisoners like Robert Siewert. One day, an SS Hauptsturmführer spotted the child. Bleicher was arrested within the camp by the SS. Other prisoners and the child’s father took care of Stefan from then on.
In 1964 Willi Bleicher and the meanwhile 23-year-old Stefan Jerzy Zweig were reunited. The labor union functionary Bleicher was honored by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations a year later.