Oskar Jakob was born on 29 August 1930 in Șimleu, Romania, into a Jewish family. His parents sent him to Satu Mare (Yiddish: Satmar), where there was a large Jewish community, so that he could attend the Hebrew school. A few months after the German invasion of Poland, the Hungarian allies of the German Reich occupied the Jakob’s home region. Jewish men were conscripted into forced labour, including Oskar Jakob’s father. Oskar, the eldest son, now had to take care of the family’s livelihood.
After German troops marched into Hungary in the spring of 1944, Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, including Oskar Jakob and his family. His mother and younger siblings were murdered in Auschwitz. Oskar, his father Hermann and his cousin Erwin were forced to carry out hard labour as bricklayers and masons. When the Red Army approached the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in January 1945, Oskar, Hermann and Erwin were taken via the Althammer subcamp of Auschwitz to the Mittelbau concentration camp. Here, immediately upon his arrival, Oskar was forced to pile the bodies of prisoners who had died during the transport onto pyres; later, he was put to forced labour assembling weapons. When the Mittelbau concentration camp was also cleared in April 1945, the SS took Oskar to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It was here that Oskar Jakob, together with his father and his cousin, experienced liberation on 15 April 1945.
After the liberation, the three moved to Frankfurt. Here, Oskar and Erwin opened a kosher deli with several other Jews. In 1949, they were able to emigrate to the USA, where Oskar settled first in New York and eventually in St Louis. He met his future wife, Margo, and became the father of four children and had numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Oskar Jakob set up a plumbing business until he retired in 1990 and travelled the world with his wife – particularly enjoying trips to Israel. He had a great passion for farm life in and with nature, and Margo and Oskar bought a farm where they kept cattle and horses.
For a long time, Oskar Jakob did not speak about his experiences. However, after telling his story at his granddaughter’s school, he went on to recount his life’s story to students, and other interested listeners repeatedly – most recently together with journalist Suzanne Rico.
Oskar Jakob has now passed away on 7 September, just one week after his 96th birthday. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and friends.
