Jack

Jack Waksal

Jack was born in September 1924, in the small town of Yedlinsk, Poland, where he lived with his parents, brother, and two sisters. At the age of 15, his world changed forever when the Nazis invaded his hometown. Jack and his family were forced into ghettos and labor camps, marking the beginning of a harrowing struggle for survival.
During the war, Jack endured slave labor in multiple military camps and munitions factories, including Pionki. He escaped death six times—once by narrowly surviving execution at the edge of a mass grave. He was recaptured and sent to four different camps.
In September 1944, Jack made a final escape and hid in the forest until the Red Army liberated the area in January 1945.
He was the sole survivor of his immediate family; his parents, siblings, and extended relatives all perished in the Holocaust.
After the war, Jack spent time in a displaced persons camp in Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1950. He settled in Dayton, Ohio, where he rebuilt his life from the ground up, marrying Sabina—a fellow survivor from his hometown and an Auschwitz survivor. Together, they built a life defined by strength, love, and perseverance.
Today, Jack is the proud patriarch of a large family: three children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren—a living legacy of survival and hope.