On the Thursday before spring break, we eighth grade ELA students who learned about the Holocaust had the extraordinary opportunity to hear from Holocaust survivor Jacob Eisenbach, who at 100 years old, shared harrowing tales of survival and loss. In order to hear Jacobs’ story, students including us had to pass a small quiz for proof that we read something about the Holocaust.
During his talk, organized by Mr. Finer with Holocaust Museum LA, Jacob recalled a day in 1935 when he was 12 years old and was playing in Liberty Park in Lodz, Poland when he got trapped by the Nazis. Suddenly, without warning, the Nazis began shooting at everyone in the park. Jacob explained that while being trapped in the park he was looking for a way; out when he found one he started running home to his family.
He described his mom as “an angel in a human body.” He said that he was lucky to be born into a family of love. He had three siblings: two brothers and one sister. All his family was sent to concentration camps, including him. His parents and brother Henry went to different camps. He and his siblings went to others. Jacob said that his sister Sara had made a friend at the camp: they had made up their own language to plan their escape from the camp. Sara and her friend escaped to the Russian part of Poland and were never seen again.
When he and his brother got out of the camp they moved in together. He tried to look for his sister and found out she had died. Then his brother had gotten a job working for the military and some of his co-workers found out that he was Jewish and shot him in the head. He added that after that day he had lost all his family.
Lastly, Jacob talked about the on-and-off fight of Hitler and the Soviet Union because the Soviet Union didn’t hate the Jews as much as the Nazis and Hitler. So in the end the Nazis were defeated and Jews were free.
Jacob eventually immigrated to the United States and became a dentist in Iowa and then in Anaheim. When he retired at age 92, he was the oldest dentist in California. As the sole survivor of his family, he now gives presentations sharing his story, explaining the dangers of hatred.
