{"id":1450425,"date":"2024-06-06T07:49:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T11:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/?p=1450425"},"modified":"2024-06-06T13:54:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:54:48","slug":"letter-of-a-lifetime-105-year-old-jewish-wwii-veteran-reflects-on-letter-he-wrote-using-hitlers-personal-stationery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/special-reports\/letter-of-a-lifetime-105-year-old-jewish-wwii-veteran-reflects-on-letter-he-wrote-using-hitlers-personal-stationery\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter of a Lifetime: 105-year-old Jewish WWII veteran reflects on letter he wrote using Hitler’s personal stationery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day<\/a> — marking the beginning of the end of World War II. It’s estimated less than 1% of the 16 million Americans who served in the conflict are still alive. 7s Karen Hensel introduces us to one South Florida veteran whose remarkable story includes his “Letter of a Lifetime.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson, WWII Army veteran: “My name is Daniel Jacobson. I was a regular sergeant in the infantry of the United States. The 45th division, the 179th infantry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson was born on April 12, 1919. To save you the math, that makes him 105 years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “I was always competitive in my life. I’m small stature.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Danny lacks in height, he more than makes up for in heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “You’re a fighter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Yes, to this day.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “What do you mean you’re a fighter to this day?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “I won’t let anybody take advantage of me or anybody around me.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So perhaps it’s fitting that near the end of WWII, Sergeant Jacobson’s unit helped liberate Dachau<\/a>, a Nazi concentration camp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “It was difficult. You thought, ‘Look at all the people that went in there that didn’t come out alive.'” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just six days after Hitler committed suicide, Danny and his fellow soldiers set up headquarters inside the dictator’s Munich, Germany apartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “They took everything they could.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what was left behind, has now become this Jewish veteran’s lasting legacy of defiance in the face of evil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “I picked it up and looked at it and to myself. I used a little profanity, it wasn’t loud. I said ‘Blah blah blah blah. I got your stationery, you –‘”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Hitler’s personal stationery<\/a>, then 26-year-old Danny wrote a letter to his wife, Julia, dated May 6, 1945: “Dearest Julia, and so, Hitler’s treasured stationery has come to this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Hitler would turn in his grave if he knew a Jew was writing on his stationery. I expressed my feelings on it.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “Almost 80 years later, you light up, and I think you still get a kick out of it.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Oh, I still do. Oh yeah.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “And you wrote the letter sitting…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Sitting in one of his chairs.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “And when you got home from the war, did you think about that letter?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “No, I mailed it and forgot about it. It was forgotten.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Danny’s late wife had saved the four-page letter. For about 50 years, it was in a box in a family attic and then a basement, before being rediscovered. Now, the letter, and a porcelain figurine Danny also took from Hitler’s apartment, are preserved at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “We hated him. I mean, what he did to 6 million–more than that–people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From past atrocities, to today’s reality<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Right now, my thoughts are about the present.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “Do you have a concern about the rise in antisemitism?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Oh, very much so.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we spoke, Danny repeatedly brought up his fears about the fragility of our own democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “People don’t know what democracy means. They don’t know. I love America, believe me. And I hate to see what’s happening. I’ve lived to be 105 years old and I have seen it all.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Baltimore and raised in Oklahoma, Danny has lived in South Florida since the 1970s. In April, Danny celebrated his 105th birthday at Oakmonte Village of Davie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assisted living community is also where Holocaust survivor Eva Schultz had lived. She has since passed, but not before the two had a chance to meet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “And then she said, ‘I have to thank you for freeing me.’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She says, ‘Dachau.’ She said ‘I’m from Dachau.’ It made me feel so good.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting in his apartment with family, there are sweet moments and time to reminisce…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “That’s when I had hair.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…about a life well-lived. One built on service and sacrifice, and stamped in history for seemingly the simplest of things… a letter home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen: “And I think you signed it, ‘Loving you forever sweetie.’ That’s pretty special.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Jacobson: “Yeah.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Hensel, 7News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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