'Not afraid of dying young': Holocaust survivor goes skydiving to mark 90th birthday

90-year-old celebrates birthday by going skydiving A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor spent his birthday carrying out a life-long goal: jumping from an airplane. Jamie Mauracher reports.

To celebrate Canada’s 150^th year – and his 90^th – Elly Gotz decided to jump out of a plane.

Not everyone in Gotz’s family was on board with his decision to try skydiving for the first time on Sunday. But the senior told CTV Toronto he had no trepidation about his big bucket list item.

“No, I’m not nervous,” he said before he was strapped into his gear at a skydiving field north of Toronto. “Besides, I’m not afraid of dying young.”

Gotz said he has cheated death before. As a teenager, he spent four years in a German concentration camp during the Second World War.

“My survival is one of fate. I survived the Holocaust,” said Gotz, who was born in Lithuania.

He was 17 years old when he and other concentration camp survivors were liberated in 1945. He eventually came to Canada and settled in Toronto.

“I’ve lived in many countries before…this is the greatest,” he said. “I can truly say I am a happy man.”

After his skydiving adventure, Gotz was even happier.

“It’s a special feeling,” he said. “But it is scary, the first moment when you open the door and you go out.”

Gotz’s wife, Esme, said there was no talking him out of taking the plunge.

“As soon as he said he wanted to do it, I knew he would do it,” she said. “So I was fine with it.”

With a report from CTV Toronto