Holocaust survivor skydives with grandson to celebrate his 18th birthday

Henriette Siebenberg, 85, also enjoys wave running, zip lining

MIAMI – A Holocaust survivor, who now lives in Hollywood, parachuted out of a plane Wednesday with one of her grandchildren.

Henriette Siebenberg told Local 10 News that she is grateful for the 85 years of life and counting that she has had. 

"Thank God. Nice family, nice children, nice grandchildren. I'm not complaining. God was very good to me," Siebenberg said.  

Siebenberg was about 10 years old when the Nazis came for her father.

He'd later be counted among the more than 1 million Jewish people killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Siebenberg and her two brothers survived the Holocaust, as they were hidden away in France, along with their stealthy mother.

"She never spoke to anybody. She did her own stuff. She was lucky -- that's all. She was very lucky," Siebenberg said.  

Siebenberg said she came to the U.S. in 1961 and met her future husband that same year at Miami Beach's famed Fontainebleau Hotel.

The couple later had three children and 10 grandchildren, which eventually brought her to the Miami Sky Diving Center.

"When my brother turned 18, he decided he wanted to go skydiving," Shmuel Eisenmann said.

So Eisenmann's grandmother strapped in for her first skydive.

"When I turned 18 on Monday, I said, I want to go," Eisenmann said. 

So Siebenberg decided she would join her grandson for her second skydive.

"I think she is one of the coolest people on the planet," Eisenmann said. 

Siebenberg described her latest tandem jump as "another nice experience."

Along with sky diving, Siebenberg enjoys wave running. She's also been on camels in the desert, elephants in Thailand, zip lines in Costa Rica and she's gone base jumping in Switzerland.

But most of the time, Siebenberg is on the ground, spending regular time with her family in Hollywood.
 


About the Author:

Layron Livingston made the move from Ohio's Miami Valley to Miami, Florida, to join the Local 10 News team.