SUNDAY DIVER
Elly Gotz, 89, tandem jumped out of an airplane Sunday to celebrate Canada 150
89-year-old Holocaust survivor marks Canada 150 with a parachute jump from 4,000 metres,
After 89-year-old Elly Gotz and his parachute drifted into a field in Cookstown, Ont., his smile was so big — as he’s been told before — that he could have fit a banana in it sideways.
Gotz, a Holocaust survivor, has always been envious of birds. On Sunday afternoon, he had a chance to fly like one as he tandem-jumped out of plane from almost 4,000 metres in the sky.
“I’m very happy I did it,” he said, speaking just after he’d made it back to the ground, safely. “I loved it, I just loved it.”
Though he was dressed and ready to go mid-morning, Gotz wasn’t able to jump until early afternoon because of repeated bouts of rainy weather.
“I like adventure,” he said while he was preparing for his jump earlier in the day. “It’s fun. It’s going to be an exciting moment to fly through the air with my hands out, my feet back like they told me, like a bird weightless through the air.”
Born in Lithuania in 1928, Gotz was taken to the Kovno Ghetto with other Jews when he was a teenager and was eventually sent to work in a camp in Dachau, Germany. He said he weighed less than 70 pounds when he was released from there at the age of 17.
After spending half a year in a hospital, Gotz moved around Europe and Africa. He, his wife and their three kids immigrated to Canada in the 1960s.
Gotz holds an electrical engineering degree, got his pilot and gliding licences and worked as businessman. Nowadays, he spends his time speaking to students — as he believes it his duty to share his story for all who did not survive the Holocaust.
When he jumped the day after the country celebrated its sesquicentennial, Gotz made a point to wear a Canada150 T-shirt. He was excited to see the country from up high.
“I think it’s just with everything that’s happening in the world, it’s such a privilege to be in Canada and to be able to choose to do that, and to have the freedom at 89 to be alive at this time. And do something that you’ve always wanted to do, always wanted to fly,” said Esme Gotz, Elly’s wife of 59 years. Esme Gotz said she knows when her husband sets his mind to something there’s no stopping him.
What she wanted most was for it to be as good for him as he’d hoped.
Elly Gotz jumped with his friend Daniel Szulc, who he had met in Europe at the March of Remembrance and Hope leadership program.
His wife, daughter and son-in-law stood by on the ground, watching Gotz float to the ground.
“My first thought was like, ‘No, I don’t want him to do this,’ ” said Julia Gotz, the middle of Elly’s three children. “My dad is 89 years old, even a minor injury is a big deal at that age.”
Before jumping Sunday afternoon, Gotz had to watch a preparation video reminding him that what he was about to do could result in serious injury or death.
“He loves to learn, he loves to have new experiences, he has done a lot of things in his life,” said Julia Gotz. “I think that is something too about living through the Holocaust, you really know you’re alive and not forever maybe. He doesn’t have as much fear as I do.”
While signing all the required documents, Elly Gotz didn’t seem afraid at all — though he did mention that he’d taken extra precautions with his dentures to make sure they didn’t fall out if he shouted while falling from the sky.