Jack J. Hersch
In Death March Escape, Jack tells the story of his father's two escapes from Nazi death marches. The morning after the second escape, his father was rescued by Barbara and Ignaz Friedmann, from the town of Enns, Austria, and hidden until American soldiers arrived. Here Jack speaks with the Mayor of Enns, Franz Karlinger (rt), and Holocaust historian Fritz Käferböck about the incredible personal risks the Friedmanns took to save his father's life.
Jack has spoken throughout the US and Europe about Death March Escape. He has addressed synagogue and church congregations, professional organizations, and middle and high school students, educating them not just about his father's story of survival, but about the Holocaust in general, as well. Here he is speaking before 300 high school students in a town near the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, where his father had been a prisoner of the Nazis.
Keenly interested in planes all his life, Jack has been a pilot for almost 40 years. Having earned a commercial license and instrument rating, he has piloted more than 20 aircraft types, including Pipers, Cessnas, the P-51 Mustang and L-39 Albatross, as well as the Boeing 767 and 777 full-motion simulators. The Dangers of Automation in Airliners combines his aviation knowledge with his engineering background to guide the reader through some of the most famous airliner incidents of the past years. Here he is at the controls of a Cessna 172 above Santa Monica, California.