Benjamin Jacobs

For well over a century, the United States has witnessed a prolonged debate over organic evolution and teaching of the theory in the nation's public schools. The controversy that began with the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species had by the 1920s expanded to include theologians, politicians, and educators. The Scopes trial of 1925 provided the growing antievolution movement with significant publicity and led to a decline in the teaching of evolution in public schools. George E. Webb details how efforts to improve science education in the wake of Sputnik resurrected antievolution sentiment and led to the emergence of "creation science" as the most recent expression of that sentiment. Creationists continue to demand "balanced treatment" of theories of creation and evolution in public schools, even though their efforts have been declared unconstitutional in a series of federal court cases. Their battles have been much more successful at the grassroots level, garnering support from local politicians and educators. Webb attributes the success of creationists primarily to the lack of scientific literacy among the American public. Although a number of published studies have dealt with specific aspects of the debate, The Evolution Controversy in America represents the first complete historical survey of the topic. In it Webb provides an analysis of one of the most intriguing debates in the history of American thought.

A Memoir

The Dentist of Auschwitz

Eugene Pool

It's the story no one would tell. On May 3, 1945, the Royal Air Force attacked a fleet of ships carrying more than seven thousand survivors of the Neuengamme concentration camp. The war was nearly over, and the survivors had endured one of history's most hellish ordeals, only to die at the hands of their allies. The bodies, in the striped white-and-black uniforms of camp prisoners, were soon washing ashore on the beach by the town of Timmendorf, near the Baltic port of Neustadt. Benjamin Jacobs, then twenty-five, survived by escaping the hold and clinging to wreckage. He was one of only 350 survivors, and one of the last of those. Days before, Jacobs had boarded the Cap Arcona, along with thousands of other prisoners. A commandeered luxury liner, the Cap Arcona was a dilapidated wreck. Nearby, the freighter Thielbek, in similar condition, was also attacked. There is reason to believe the Germans were intending to sink the Cap Arcona themselves. Though they claimed the prisoners were headed to Sweden, the ships may have been nonfunctional. The Royal Air Force believed the ships contained escaping SS officers. Tragically, British intelligence may have known who was on the ships, which may explain why the RAF has sealed the records until 2045. In The 100-Year Secret Benjamin Jacobs collaborates with writer Eugene Pool to describe his miraculous escape from a burning transport ship that was once one of the most glamorous ocean liners of the early twentieth century, and investigates why the incident, which will have its 60th anniversary in May, 2005, appears in no history books. The governments of Germany and Great Britain continue to refuse either to discuss it or to release pertinent records, The 100-Year Secret is the first complete account in English of this horrific and suppressed tragedy. It is also the first book-length description by an actual survivor. Furthermore, it contains new information about the incident, its participants, and its perpetrators not found in previous accounts. It is both the riveting personal story of a man who refused to give up, no matter what the circumstances, and an important revision of both Jewish and world history.

Britain's Hidden WWII Massacre

The 100-year Secret

La storia di Berek Jakubowicz (ora Benjamin Jacobs), uno studente ebreo di odontoiatria che nel 1941 fu deportato dal suo villaggio polacco e trascorse cinque anni nei campi di sterminio nazisti, tra cui Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, e per quasi due anni Auschwitz. Ad Auschwitz, dove entrò in contatto con il famigerato Josef Mengele e assistette alla morte di suo padre, Jakubowicz riuscì a sopravvivere grazie alle sue seppur limitate capacità professionali. Gli fu consentito di esercitare una pratica dentistica primitiva sui detenuti e sugli ufficiali delle SS, così come fu obbligato ad estrarre i denti d’oro dai cadaveri dopo la gasazione. Nel maggio del 1945, con altri 15.000 detenuti, il protagonista partecipò alla marcia della morte verso la Baia di Lubecca, e fu coinvolto nel bombardamento del transatlantico ‘‘Cap Arcona’’ da parte della RAF, nel quale perirono circa 8.000 ebrei. Accolto con favore unanime dalla critica negli Stati Uniti alla sua comparsa, “Il dentista di Auschwitz” parla delle origini del male da una prospettiva unica. Organi atrofizzati giacevano accatastati sul pavimento. Mi feci forza per affrontare il corpo di un uomo di mezza età. I suoi occhi socchiusi mi fissavano, come ad accusarmi del delitto che stavo per compiere. Come cercai di divaricare la sua bocca, sentii la sua gelida pelle. Quando finalmente forzai per aprire, le mascelle si ruppero, e questo mi spaventò. Ogni successivo movimento dentro quella bocca aperta produsse un suono stridente. Immaginai che fosse il suo modo di dire ‘‘no!’’. Mi sentivo come se la morte insorgesse fino a fermarmi. Ogni pezzo d’oro che estrassi mi fece pensare a come loro, i morti, dovessero rimanere scioccati. A volte dovetti fingere, parlare con me stesso, che quello che stavo facendo era normale. Gli strumenti che usavo per quel triste compito li tenevo in una scatola rossa. Perché avessi dipinto la scatola in quel modo, non saprei dirlo. La maggior parte dei detenuti che mi vedevano camminare verso l’obitorio con quella cassetta, sapevano cosa andavo a fare, e non lo ritenevano insolito. Mio padre e mio fratello, anche loro sapevano. Ora avevo abbastanza oro per i ponti degli uomini delle SS e per le capsule. In modo semplice e schietto, Jacobs rivela la brutalità implacabile e senza senso dell’esistenza in un campo di concentramento, e, infine, il miracolo della sopravvivenza. BOOKLIST Jacobs trasmette con ancora più forza l’orrore quotidiano della vita del lager: il freddo pungente, la fame costante, l’odore di carne umana bruciata. Peggio ancora, osserva l’autore, Auschwitz era diventato un modo perverso di vivere mentre cercava di sopravvivere. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Benjamin Jacobs

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