Unstoppable EPK

Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend

Unstoppable is the ultimate immigrant story and an epic David-and-Goliath adventure. While American teens were socializing in ice cream parlors, Siggi was suffering beatings by Nazi hoodlums for being a Jew and was soon deported along with his family to the darkest place the world has ever known: Auschwitz. Siggi used his wits to stay alive, pretending to have trade skills the Nazis could exploit to run the camp. After two death marches and near starvation, he was liberated from camp Mauthausen and went to work for the US Army hunting Nazis, a service that earned him a visa to America. On arrival, he made three vows: to never go hungry again, to support the Jewish people, and to speak out against injustice. He earned his first dollar shoveling snow after a fierce blizzard. His next job was laboring in toxic sweatshops. From these humble beginnings, he became president, chairman and CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed oil company and grew a full-service commercial bank to more than $4 billion in assets.

Siggi’s ascent from the darkest of yesterdays to the brightest of tomorrows holds sway over the imagination in this riveting narrative of grit, cunning, luck, and the determination to live life to the fullest.

The ultimate rags-to-riches adventure, one that follows a young boy from starvation on death marches to dinner at the White House. Siggi’s epic life began in poverty and ended with one of the most lucrative bank sales in Wall Street history—a survivor saga in a category of its own.

Unstoppable recounts the volcanic life of Siggi Wilzig, who survived the Holocaust and became one of the biggest—and most unexpected—successes in postwar American business. Siggi was a force of nature: an immigrant who arrived in New York penniless, with no formal education, and proceeded to build a $4 billion oil-and-banking empire. This is a survivor story in a category of its own, one that does not dwell on tragedy but celebrates human ingenuity and the power of faith. As renowned banking lawyer Rodgin Cohen put it, “Siggi was someone who would look at the Himalayan mountains and say, ‘I can climb that.’”