When Eddie Jaku was an inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp, he suffered from the effects of beatings, slave labor, malnutrition, freezing weather and every other imaginable horror, but because the SS officers who ran the camp recognized that Jaku had skills in mechanical and precision engineering the Nazis needed, he was classified as an “Economically Indispensable Jew” and his life spared.
Jaku described how, “on three separate occasions, I was taken to the gas chambers and maybe 20 meters before going in, the guard saw my name, number and profession and shouted, ‘Take out 172338.’ ”
On such occasions Jaku appreciated his father, who had “insisted I learn the skills that would save my life. He’d always stressed the importance of work. He understood it was the way a person contributed to the world, that it is important for everybody to play their part in order for society to function properly.”
As the foreman of the camp’s IG Farben workshop, Jaku was responsible for maintaining the high-pressure air pipes that ran the 200 machines, each with an inmate overseeing it. Jaku was also in charge of regulating the air pressure. The Nazis required perfection in Jaku’s performance. He had to wear a sign around his neck which indicated if any of the pipes were found to be leaking, Jaku was to be hanged.
One of the 200 machine operators was Jaku’s........