Holocaust Survivor Skydives on 85th Birthday
For his 85th birthday, holocaust survivor Gary Lenzner decided to spice it up and get his feet off the ground. On Sunday morning, the survivor jumped out of a plane, fell 10,000 feet and landed safely, with a parachute, on Nichol's Field in Jamul, east of San Diego, reports OC Register.
For Lenzner, the event was not only an adrenaline rush but a way to show that the holocaust and Adolf Hitler had not stifled his desire to live.
"I'd like to prove the son of a B**** didn't succeed," Lenzner said. "Not only didn't he succeed, I had two children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren, and now I'm jumping out of an airplane."
When asked why he decided to go skydiving, a birthday plan more than a decade in the making, Lenzner replied, "you only live once. Once you're dead, you're dead."
Lenzner survived Nazi internment and certain death, essentially by sheer luck, he said.
He was a native German Jew living in Berlin as a teenager when his family was notified in 1943 of their pending relocated. Lenzner refused to go along with the Nazis and abandoned his I.D. papers to live a transient life.
Lenzner couldn't hide forever and when old friends recognized him and started yelling that he was a Jew, he fled.
"I ran right into the arms of a policeman," he said to the source.
He was brought to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he spent the next two years in forced labor. In 1945, after being transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, he decided to make a run for it while the laborers were being marched back from a day harvesting crops.
"During this march, as people fell down, they were shot - it became a death march," he said.
When the trail entered the woods, he left the path and started running. He reached a woman's farmhouse who offered him shelter and a few weeks later, American tanks captured the area.
Compared to surviving the Holocaust, skydiving was no big deal to Lenzner.
"If I get any more calm, I'll fall asleep," he joked to his family while boarding the plane to jump.
When he met his tandem skydiving instructor, Lenzner introduced himself by saying: "I'm 85 years old, and I'm a Holocaust survivor."
Lenzner enjoyed the experience.
"I enjoyed it very much," Lenzner said. "There was a fleeting moment when I got a little bit dizzy, mainly when I started going sideways. If I stay healthy, maybe I'll do it at 90."
The Survivors Club
For Lenzner, the event was not only an adrenaline rush but a way to show that the holocaust and Adolf Hitler had not stifled his desire to live.
"I'd like to prove the son of a B**** didn't succeed," Lenzner said. "Not only didn't he succeed, I had two children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren, and now I'm jumping out of an airplane."
When asked why he decided to go skydiving, a birthday plan more than a decade in the making, Lenzner replied, "you only live once. Once you're dead, you're dead."
Lenzner survived Nazi internment and certain death, essentially by sheer luck, he said.
He was a native German Jew living in Berlin as a teenager when his family was notified in 1943 of their pending relocated. Lenzner refused to go along with the Nazis and abandoned his I.D. papers to live a transient life.
Lenzner couldn't hide forever and when old friends recognized him and started yelling that he was a Jew, he fled.
"I ran right into the arms of a policeman," he said to the source.
He was brought to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he spent the next two years in forced labor. In 1945, after being transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, he decided to make a run for it while the laborers were being marched back from a day harvesting crops.
"During this march, as people fell down, they were shot - it became a death march," he said.
When the trail entered the woods, he left the path and started running. He reached a woman's farmhouse who offered him shelter and a few weeks later, American tanks captured the area.
Compared to surviving the Holocaust, skydiving was no big deal to Lenzner.
"If I get any more calm, I'll fall asleep," he joked to his family while boarding the plane to jump.
When he met his tandem skydiving instructor, Lenzner introduced himself by saying: "I'm 85 years old, and I'm a Holocaust survivor."
Lenzner enjoyed the experience.
"I enjoyed it very much," Lenzner said. "There was a fleeting moment when I got a little bit dizzy, mainly when I started going sideways. If I stay healthy, maybe I'll do it at 90."
The Survivors Club