The Eric Metaxas Radio Show

1:05:17

Holocaust Survivor Jack Wurfl | My Two Lives

Jochen "Jack" Wurfl lived two lives. Jack was born in 1932 in Germany to his Jewish mother and Catholic father, and lived in Austria until 1936. Anticipating Hitler's invasion of Austria, his parents sent Jack and his brother, Peter, back to Germany to live with their Jewish grandparents in Berlin. As Hitler's persecution of the Jews intensified, Jack's grandfather sneaked the boys into hiding at a children's summer camp in the resort village of Dangast, 200 miles northwest of Berlin on the North Sea. The camp was operated by a brave and sympathetic German woman named Irma Franzen-Heinrichsdorff. Jack and Peter lived with "Tante Irma" for twelve years, where they survived bombing raids, SS police surveillance, and food shortages. Their mother died in Auschwitz. Their father, a political prisoner in the Mauthausen concentration camp, died shortly after his liberation after World War II ended. At age seventeen, Jack began his second life when the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children relocated him and Peter to the United States. Driven to "build something that will last" with his newfound freedom in Baltimore, Jack took night classes to learn English and found a job at a small insurance company. After serving two years in the U.S. Army, where he was selected for the color guard at the ten-year commemoration of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, Jack married Zonia, a former Miss El Salvador. They raised three daughters, Odette, Dana, and Lisa. In 1969, Jack founded Diversified Insurance Industries, an agency that he built into one of the top 200 in the country. Jack also played hard as a skier, pilot, thoroughbred racehorse owner, deep-sea fisherman, and world traveler. He golfed with astronaut Alan Shepard and volleyed with tennis star Maria Sharapova. These days, when Jack is not in the office, he enjoys spending time with his daughters and four grandchildren, Elle, Thomas, Gillian, and Aidan. My Two Lives is a story about the heart, courage, determination, and love that empowered Jack to overcome adversity and achieve his remarkable success.