Benjamin Jacobs, Auschwitz Survivor, 84

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Benjamin Jacobs, who treated other prisoners and even guards during
his four years in the camps at Auschwitz, died Friday, January 30,
2004, of kidney failure, at the age of 84.

Benjamin Jacobs had completed only one year of dental school when
Poland fell to Germany in World War II. He was taken to a series of
concentration camps, ending with Auschwitz. As his mother told him to
do, he brought along his dental supplies.

"In the first camp, somebody had a terrible toothache and they didn't
have a dentist," said his wife, Else of Brookline, Massachusetts. "And
that's when my husband volunteered, and ever since then he became
known as the dentist no matter which camp he was transferred to."

After the war, in which he lost his parents and his sister, Mr. Jacobs
traveled for about a year until he settled in Luedenscheid, a small
town in Germany, and opened a dental supply store.

While attending a Rosh Hashanah service in a neighboring town in 1948,
he met the daughter of the man officiating the service. She would
become his wife. However, Mr. Jacobs already had his immigration
papers and left for Brookline the following year. A year later, he
returned to marry and the two settled in Brookline for good in 1950.

In 1951, he opened Shawmut TV and Appliance Center on the corner of
Brookline Avenue and Boylston Street. He operated the business until
1968, when he "lost interest," his wife said, and began to dabble in
various other careers.

He became a stockbroker, but quickly changed his path again. He
obtained a real estate license, though he never practiced, and tried
out the advertising business for a short time.

Around the same time, he began speaking at high schools in the Boston
area about his experiences during the Holocaust. He was then
approached by a speaker's bureau and took his talks to universities.

As part of a project at Yale University, he had his story recorded. He
also participated in the Shoah Project, an effort headed by filmmaker
Steven Spielberg in the 1990s to preserve every living survivor's
story before there were none left.

In 1994, he published his first book, "The Dentist of Auschwitz," and
his second, "100 Year Secret," is soon to be published.

Unlike many Holocaust survivors, his wife said he did not feel guilty
that he lived. Instead, she said he was happy he had the opportunity
to help so many people.

"He just said he was very lucky, he was grateful to his mother that
she made him take his instruments," Else said.

A member of the World Jewish Congress, Mr. Jacobs was born in Dobra,
Poland, on November 18, 1919.