Benjamin Jacobs

Benjamin Jacobs, born Bronek Jakubowicz or Berek Jakubowicz, was a dentist who in 1941, was deported from his Polish village and remained a Nazi prisoner until the final days of the Second World War. He survived Auschwitz and the death march to the Baltic, with the help of his dental tools. In 1945, he then survived the Royal Air Force attack on the ocean liners 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 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.

At Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps, he was involved in building V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets. his father died.

He survived the Royal Air Force 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 in 1995. The Dentist of Auschwitz: A Memoir recounts his experiences and revulsion at having to strip gold from prisoners at Auschwitz 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 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. 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).