Benjamin Jacobs is a Holocaust survivor. He was placed in a concentration camp with his father and they were both sent to work. In the concentration camps, you either work, or die, and working was the medicine to cure immanent death. During a roll call at Jacobs' first concentration camp, Steineck, the SS officers asked for all doctors, tailors, and cooks to step forward (Jacobs). They did so, but Jacobs, with dentistry training, was reluctant to step forward. After his father urged him to do so, he complied and was assigned to be the camp d

The rumors were true, and Jacobs and his Father were on the list. Jacobs was relieved he could finally leave the place; he would be escaping Krusche, the German who promised to hang him. Unfortunately, he would be leaving Zosia too. When the group of Jews arrived at the next camp, Gutenbrunn, the same process took place (Jacobs). Jacobs was assigned as the camp dentist, but again after a while a group of Jews were rounded up to move to another camp. Jacobs, his father, and others where sent off to Auschwitz. Auschwitz was probably the most feared concentration camp. Located in Poland, the Jews heard stories of how this camp was strictly a death camp. Jacobs' nightmare continued. When the group arrived at Auschwitz, they were stripped of their clothes and sent in five at a time. The infamous Dr. Mengele was the one inspecting the prisoners. Both Jacobs and his father passed, and were sent in to work at the camp. One night as Jacobs was bathing, he ran into an officer he had became close with at Gutenbrunn. He talked to him about becoming a dentist at Auschwitz. Grimm, the officer, eventually helped Jacobs out, and Jacobs was assigned the duty of dentist (Jacobs, 74). Through being the dentist, he eventually made acquaintances with Kommandant. This gave him somewhat of a higher status of other Jews; he could request things and actually communicate with German figures of authority. One day it was asked of Jacobs that he go to the morgue and extract the dental gold from the deceased's teeth (Jacobs, 76). This horrible act that Jacobs was asked to bounced around in his conscience. If he didn't do as instructed, he would lose his position as dentist, which meant losing his privileges, or he could even be killed. As heinous of an act this is, Jacob's had no choice. It was perfectly justified, the people are dead, and wont feel it. The fact that it is another human being is a reason to be repulsed, but there is no sense in Jacobs sacrificing his life for a person who has already lost theirs. Although he is desecrating another human being, which is something that no one would want to do, it was for him to live. This was a choice Jacobs had to make, morals versus survival. He is alive today.

These stories of choices that people had to make for their survival, or to end suffering during the Holocaust can be seen today. The images of people jum

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Approximate Word count = 1603
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)