Holocaust Survivor Julius Jacobs Speaks to Saucon Valley Students

Allentown resident Julius Jacobs is a Holocaust survivor on a mission to educate youth about the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. Branded #50595 in Auschwitz, Jacobs told his powerful story of fear, despair and survival to eighth grade students at Saucon Valley Middle School March 10.

Jacobs was a teenager in Lodz, Poland when World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939. What began as a typical first day of school ended anything but typically when he and his classmates came home to the shocking news that the Germans had crossed the Polish border and World War II had begun, he recalled.

The Germans quickly invaded Jacobs' Jewish neighborhood and burned everything they could. All the Jews were moved into a ghetto where they were completely isolated from the rest of the world.

Jacobs spoke of the squalid conditions of life in the ghetto. For example, food was rationed to about 300 calories a day per person. For the sake of comparison, Jacobs explained that a bottle of Dr. Pepper has 150 calories.

By describing for them what life was like at the time, Jacobs took students on the nightmarish journey his family made, from the point at which they were forced into the ghetto to a period when they went into hiding, until their capture about four weeks later. That capture led to their deportation to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, where his father and mother perished.

While at Auschwitz, Jacobs made a promise that if he survived his ordeal he would tell the world about this tragic and darkest time in human history.

By visiting schools such as Saucon Valley he is not only keeping his promise, but also enhancing students' curriculum.

Students are currently studying the Holocaust and in language arts classes are reading books with “tolerance” as their theme. They listened quietly and some started to squirm--in an effort to keep from crying--as they listened to Jacobs' emotional story.

Jacobs’ account ended on an uplifting note, when he recalled that on May 2, 1945, he was liberated by Allied forces.

On that day, American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne unit arrived just in time to save him and other survivors, cutting open the barbed wire fence around the concentration camp, offering them their jackets and food, and bringing an end to the genocide that had been occurring.

Jacobs miraculously survived Auschwitz along with his older brother, Fred. He later found out that his sister, Regina, was alive in Czechoslovakia.

“That was the best thing that happened afterward," Jacobs explained.

Later in 1945, he immigrated to the United States, where he he worked odd jobs until landing a position in the Mercedes Benz office in America. He later married and had two sons.

“I took you step by step with reality," Jacobs said to students at the end of his presentation.

Asked to explain what the Holocaust was and why it happened, he said, "A man named Adolf Hitler, for no reason whatsoever...killed six million Jews and millions of non-Jews. For what reason? Because of hatred."

"Why can’t we live together and tolerate each other?” Jacobs asked students, before urging them to “remember tolerance. Hatred and discrimination should have no part in your life.”

“How did you adjust back to normal life?” asked student Maggie Hofstaedter.

“It took a while but I had to make a decision," Jacobs replied. "In order to go on, I am not going to do anything good if I am absorbed in hatred. I decided I will do good. It took a lot of courage to accomplish it.”

When asked if he ever thought about covering up or removing his number tattoo, Julius replied that he “wouldn’t get rid of it. Every morning I wake up and remember Mom and Dad. It is more than just a tattoo.”

Following the lecture, students lined up to meet Jacobs and, for some, to get a close up view of his tattoo.

Students were also able to order an autographed copy of his autobiography, The Will To Survive.