Jacob Eisenbach, a holocaust survivor, gave a speech titled “Standing Up to Hate” at CSUB in which he spoke about his struggles in the Holocaust and gave life lessons to the audience on Nov. 10.

Before Eisenbach gave his speech, a Rabbi sang a Yiddish song to Eisenbach which many mothers sang to their children.

An audience member brought the recent hate on the Jewish community to Eisenbach’s attention and he stated that he is not worried about the prejudice against the Jewish community because he knows it will not prosper in America.

“Those people who are antisemitic, racist, skinheads, the haters those people are failures in society. They are failures in education. Failures in employment. Failures in business,” said Eisenbach.

“If people allow themselves to forget about the tragedies of the holocaust they will allow it to happen again,” stated Eisenbach.

Because Eisenbach does not want people to forget he shares his account about the crimes that the Nazis committed.

Eisenbach gave two accounts in which he was on his way to Auschwitz where he would have been gassed, but the Germans transported him to different labor camps, where he and his brother made bullets for the Germans.

Eisenbach described the challenges that he faced in his life as a blessing in disguise while overweight men were dying, due to a parasite, he was placed on a starvation diet so the parasite did not affect him.

Eisenbach described that the day before the Germans released him he had met his wife.

“I met my future wife in the most romantic place, a Nazi concentration camp. And the three of us [Eisenbach, his brother, and his wife] walked out of the camp into freedom. I enrolled at the University and my brother joined the Polish army,” said Eisenbach.

Eisenbach said that even though he was taken into concentration camps he did not lose his faith in humanity because many citizens risked their lives to help save Jews.

The Jewish traditions taught Eisenbach that one of the greatest accomplishments is to turn an enemy into a friend, and because of that, he does not desire revenge, said Eisenbach.

Eisenbach ended his speech by giving advice to the young audience members.

“I have a message for all of you society is putting great hope into you. You are our future leaders. Guard your precious minds against accepting ideas of hatred, discrimination, and intolerance,” said Eisenbach.