Holocaust Survivor Goes Skydiving to Spite Hitler
United Press International
Aug 03, 2011
An 85-year-old California man who survived the Holocaust said he celebrated his birthday by skydiving as a final swipe against Adolf Hitler.
Gary Lenzner of Mission Viejo, who jumped out of the plane at 10,000 feet Sunday morning and landed safely on Nichol's Field in Jamul, said his birthday stunt was proof that "the idiot" Hitler "didn't succeed," The Orange County (Calif.) Register reported Monday.
"Not only didn't he succeed, I had two children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren, and now I'm jumping out of an airplane," Lenzer said.
Lenzer escaped from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 while being marched back from harvesting crops and hid in a farmhouse until U.S. tanks began rolling through the area.
Lenzer's skydive came on the same day as 82-year-old Judy Wade celebrated her own birthday by jumping out of a plane at Skydiving the Ranch in Gardiner, N.Y., the New York Daily News reported Monday.
"The older you get, the better life gets -- if you let it," Wade said.
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Copyright 2011 by United Press International
