Oct 06 2024 61 mins
Jochen (Jack)( Wurfl (92) shares his astonishing story of losing his family in the holocaust, coming to America, and his thoughts on patriotism, freedom, Israel, anti-semitism, and life.
Jack was born in 1932 in Germany to his Jewish mother and Catholic father, and lived in Austria until 1936. Anticipating Hitler's invasion of Austria, his parents sent Jack and his brother, Peter, back to Germany to live with their Jewish grandparents in Berlin.
As Hitler's persecution of the Jews intensified, Jack's grandfather sneaked the boys into hiding at a children's summer camp in the resort village of Dangast, 200 miles northwest of Berlin on the North Sea. The camp was operated by a brave and sympathetic German woman named Irma Franzen-Heinrichsdorff.
Jack and Peter lived with "Tante Irma" for twelve years, where they survived bombing raids, SS police surveillance, and food shortages. Their mother died in Auschwitz. Their father, a political prisoner in the Mauthausen concentration camp, died shortly after his liberation after World War II ended.