Jack Brauns has a gusto for life that belies his past. As a teenager, in Kaunas, Lithuania, when the peace and normalcy of his family life was brutally interrupted, he endured the most horrible atrocities of our time, living through life in a ghetto, then incarceration in concentration camps.

After his liberation in 1945, he studied medicine in Italy; eventually coming to the USA to continue his medical education. Dr. Brauns became a skilled and reputable general surgeon, sub-specializing in hernia repair, co-founding a national hernia institute with multiple locations in California. He has lectured in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Japan and was active in the hernia society in the USA and Europe.

He has a beautiful family, wife and three daughters and a grandson who, over the years, all share his interests in photography, traveling, skiing and the pleasure of living and appreciating each day and the importance of friendships.

His fluency in languages played a very important part in his survival and in present circumstances enhances his life. His bubbling enthusiasm, insatiable curiosity, creativity, and ingenuity rubs off on all those he meets.

Dr. Brauns retired from medicine and resides in Southern California, spending his time writing, lecturing and educating audiences on the lessons of the Holocaust.