Benjamin Jacobs, born Bronek Jakubowicz or Berek Jakubowicz, was a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

who in 1941, was deported from his Polish village and remained a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

prisoner until the final days of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He survived

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

and the

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...

to the Baltic, with the help of his dental tools. In 1945, he then survived the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

attack on the

ocean liners An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

turned into prison camps in the Bay of Lubeck. After the war, he settled in Boston, USA, worked as a dentist and toured to give interviews about his wartime experiences. In 1995, he published his memoirs, ''The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir'', recounting his experiences and revulsion at having to strip gold from prisoners at Auschwitz in exchange for extra provisions for his family. In 2004, with co-author Eugene Pool, he recounted the Bay of Lubeck incident in a book entitled ''The 100-year secret : Britain's hidden WWII massacre''.

Life

Bronek Jaciebowicz also spelled Berek Jakubowicz, and later known as Benjamin Jacobs, was born in 1919. In June 1941, he was a first year dental student and one of 160 men aged between 16 and 60 that were taken from the small town of Dobra in western Poland by the occupying Nazis and sent on a journey through a series of labour and concentration camps. On the advice of his mother, he carried his dental tools and despite being limited as to which procedures he could perform, he became known as "the dentist" and was sought after for his treatments. He performed simple dental procedures including draining a

fistula In anatomy, a fistula (: fistulas or fistulae ; from Latin ''fistula'', "tube, pipe") is an abnormal connection (i.e. tube) joining two hollow spaces (technically, two epithelialized surfaces), such as blood vessels, intestines, or other h ...

and cleaning gums with iodine. His bright red box, containing his dental tools, became "his passport to survival". At

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

and

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour f ...

s, he was involved in building

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...

s and

V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...

s. Once at Auschwitz with his father and brother (Josek), he was appointed to the dental station to treat SS men and was also given the job of extracting gold from the corpses of people murdered by the Nazis. It was hard to do and he recounted "I heard the voices of broken hearts and crushed souls". He also witnessed the selection processes and labouring in the mines. Despite saving extra rations for his family, his father died. At Auschwitz, he also crossed paths with

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

. Jacobs has been recalled in the memoirs of

Sam Pivnik Sam Pivnik (born Szmuel Pivnik; 1 September 1926, Będzin – 30 August 2017, London) was a Holocaust survivor, author and memoirist. He was the second son of Lajb Pivnik, a tailor, and Feigel Pivnik. As a Jewish family, the Pivniks were forced ...

, another Holocaust survivor who described his experiences at

Fürstengrube subcamp The Fürstengrube subcamp was a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp, operated by Nazi Germany in 1943–1945 in Wesoła near Mysłowice in occupied Poland. It was organized in the summer of 1943 at the Fürstengrube hard coal mine in the ...

. He survived the

attack on the ocean liners turned into prison camps, the SS ''Cap Arcona'', SS ''Thielbek'' and the SS ''Deutschland'' in the Bay of Lubeck in 1945. After the Second World War was over, Jacobs toured the United States and other places to share his experiences and speak of the people he had tried to help, but did not write his memoirs until he was in his eighties. At the time, he was suffering from cancer of the throat.

''The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir''

Jacobs wrote his memoirs which were published by the

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

in 1995. ''The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir'' recounts his experiences and revulsion at having to strip gold from prisoners at

in exchange for extra provisions for his family. The book has been acknowledged as a unique witness account of the "perverted way of life" at Auschwitz and has been used as a

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular f ...

to examine the traumas and ethical dilemmas faced by Jews who held "privileged" positions in the ghettos and concentration camps. The memoirs were published by the University Press of Kentucky in 1995 and consist of 20 chapters. He writes in the book that "Jews were verbally abused and often beaten in broad daylight". It has been described as a "hard read", but a valuable first-hand testimony of dentistry in Auschwitz. Defined as having "Wieselian darkness", it has been compared to ''

Night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...

'', a novella by

Elie Wiesel Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates#1980, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel bibliogra ...

''The 100-year secret : Britain's hidden WWII massacre''

Jacobs and Eugene Pool authored ''The 100-year secret : Britain's hidden WWII massacre'', published by

The Lyons Press Globe Pequot is a book publisher and distributor of outdoor recreation and leisure titles that publishes 500 new titles. Globe Pequot was acquired by Morris Communications in 1997. Lyons Press was acquired in 2001. It was sold to Rowman & Littlef ...

in 2004, in which Jacobs gives a first hand account of the Cap Arcona disaster, one of a few known memoirs of the incident. He was rescued by a motorized fishing boat.

Death

Jacobs died on 30 January 2004.

Publications

''The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir''
University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
''The 100-year secret : Britain's hidden WWII massacre''
The Lyons Press (2004), .

References