Sunday, January 16th, dLife will start their new season with the story of Ernest Sterzer, the only person with type 1 diabetes known to have survived the Nazi Concentration Camps. As the press release at prnewswire.com reads:
Ernest was diagnosed at age 3, lucky enough that insulin had been discovered a few years before. But a decade later, in 1938, he and his family were living in Austria when Germany invaded. Both brothers and parents were moved to Theresenstadt and then to Auschwitz, where their parents were separated and murdered.
dLifeTV recounts Ernest's amazing journey of survival – trading bread for insulin in one camp to lapsing into a diabetic coma in Auschwitz. Throughout these years, Ernest kept a diary of the events, recounting how he narrowly escaped death time and again.
“The story of Ernest Sterzer is an intersection of two worlds I am personally intimate with,” relates Howard Steinberg, CEO and Founder of dLife. “I have Type 1 diabetes and my parents survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Sterzer’s is one of the most amazing and moving stories in diabetes history. Just imagine the guile and even good fortune it took to survive. The harsh and sad reality is that in spite of all this and his ultimate journey to freedom, in the end it was diabetes that he ultimately could not survive.”
In addition to the 2 part segment, dLife has made available a pdf of Sterzer’s account, which you can read HERE.
dLife is shown on CNBC at 7:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Pacific. After the premier, the episode will be available in the dLife Viewing room. Consult your TV Guide or local/cable listings to see if CNBC is in your area and when dLife is aired. My thanks to AmyT and DiabetesMine.com for alerting me to this.
Without a doubt. So many without the challenges of type 1 diabetes did not survive and the Nazis were even more vicious with people who were “defective” that for Ernest to have survived is nothing short of a miracle.
I hope people watch this segment. This story is likely to be so profound!
I went to Dachau Camp Memorial when I went to Germany to visit my brother. You can see the photos I shot by clicking HERE, if you’re interested.
Those are fantastic pictures Angela. Thanks for sharing them. However much ■■■ diabetes sucks, there are worse things. Thanks as well for the link to the program. The story sounds incredible and amazing. Although perhaps it will also reference the ongoing low-carb ‘debate’, if there is one?
You make me blush, AR! Thank you for the kudos! Dachau is a haunting place to visit. Standing in front of those gates, which my brother made me walk up to from the station down the road, just as a prisoner would have done, was humbling. Walking along that path where so many lost their lives…words are inadequate to express what being there does to you. And yes, it does remind you that there are other things in life that are far worse than diabetes.
As for referencing the low-carb debate, well, that I’m not sure. I do know that if you read the pdf dLife provides, you’ll read Ernest’s own account of what happened to him, and it wasn’t pretty. He nearly died several times for lack of insulin and the starvation he underwent at the hands of the Nazis did not stave off exceptionally high bgs. I know that one thing that is forgotten when people who use history to defend ultra-low carb diets is that despite the ultra-low carb diet, people with diabetes died. Sometimes (such as those of us with type 1) it was very quick. Other times, such as with type 2, it was much slower. Regardless, if you developed diabetes in the early part of the last century, you were not likely to live much longer. Thank G*d for small favors, such as insulin.
You’re most welcome. I hope to be able to see the show tonight, but we’ll see. If I can’t see it tonight, it will be available in dLife’s viewing room after it airs tonight.
It’s on at 4PM here on the U.S. West Coast. I’m typing this so I remember to watch it; I really like that show but often forget to watch it as I otherwise never watch tv during the day. I love most of the show, anyway; I can’t stand the chef; he just grates on my nerve; he lost me the time he said, this dish has only 13 carbs, serve it over rice. Huh??
2 minutes to go! Unfortunately, the Jets-Patriots game is on here, in the 3rd quarter, and I don’t think I can get the male-type personages to switch the channel, so I am probably going to miss it. Oh well, that’s the joy of the internet!
As for chef Michel Nischan (the chef you said you’re not fond of), I’m not sure why he would say that, except to offer a suggestion for those who eat more carbs than you do. Like for me, if I inject 3 units of Humalog, I need about 45-50g of carbs. I’d need to have the dish, plus 1/3c rice (~15g carbs), and perhaps a dessert or some other carb source that has between 17-22g carbs. We’re all different.
Thanks for posting this. Afraid I saw your blog too late to watch, but I’ll catch it at dLife. I grew up in a neighborhood with survivors of the Holocaust. Though they didn’t see themselves as heroes & most refused to talk about it, they were people I held in awe as a kid (& later as an adult). Someone would extend their arm to reach for something & you’d see the tattoo number on their earm. Tattoos never held appeal because they have bad connotations for me.
This maybe on the side , but …I do as a person born in 1940 , the Netherlands, with a sibling born in 1935 have many , many bad memories . 1944 was the Hunger war …no food but eating tulip bulbs …we did not have diabetes and some of our family members parished ( sp?) . Our Grandfather died in a camp in Hannover , Germany at age 59 .
The experience probably shaped us .
I missed this episode on TV, but for some reason remember today and sought it out. Anyone who endured this under ANY circumstance is a miracle muchless someone who had a disease that made it through and had a life beyond those horrors. My heart just ached seeing his brother speak about him and what they endured. I am almost speechless.
