Project 'Long shadow of Sobibor' Interview 11 Philip Jacobs Project 'Late gevolgen van Sobibor'

Philip Jacobs was born youngest of three children. He graduated as a pharmacist at the beginning of the war. Early in 1942 he fled alone to Southern France, and arrived via Curaçao in Canada, where he enrolled in the Royal Air Force. He served in the occupational force in Germany. After his return to the Netherlands he found out that his parents, sister, and girlfriend had been killed in Sobibor. Philip completed his studies after the war and then worked as a hospital pharmacist in Rotterdam. He visited Auschwitz and Sobibor several times. He acted as a co-plaintiff at the Demjanjuk trial because, among other reasons, he felt the need to meet one of the murderers of his loved ones face to face, but also because he felt that he should not neglect his duty to act as a witness. Philip is the widower of Tinie Rottenberg, whom he first met at the Jewish Youth Federation. Philip Jacobs has three sons and five granddaughters.