Brenda Vinton
"My mother always said - "watch all around you, it can happen again". "
Name at birth
Bracha Groshajt
Date of birth
03/02/1921
Where did you grow up?
Warsaw, Poland
Name of father, occupation
Benjamin Groshajt,
Tailor, store owner
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Mindla Piekarek,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents - Benjamin and Mindla, children Bracha, Shlomo, Henik, Czeslawa.
How many in entire extended family?
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
Who survived the Holocaust?
Bracha and Czeslawa
My mother came from a conservative Jewish family who owned a tailor business that made school uniforms and clothing for non-Jewish boys. Both parents worked in the store and the children had a nanny at home. They went to the country every summer and took an underprivileged or orphaned child with them to spend a summer in the country. When the war broke out they were able to sell material from their business to purchase food on the black market to eat, which kept them alive until it ran out and the Ghetto put a stop to that. My mother's youngest brother was taken from the Ghetto, her father was shot in the street of the Ghetto and her mother was taken to Treblinka. My mother and her two siblings were taken to Majdanek after the uprising. She saw her cousin there and stayed together through three camps until their liberation. My mother went to Germany in 1978 to testify in the Majdanek Trials against one of her SS guards, Hermina Ryan. (See article from the Detroit Jewish News.)
What DP Camp were you after the war?
Yes
Where did you go after being liberated?
First Brenda went to Austria, then Czechoslovakia, Belgium and then to the United States in 1949
When did you come to the United States?
1949
Where did you settle?
Detroit, Michigan
How is it that you came to Michigan?
Brenda had a cousin in Detroit who found them sponsorship.
Occupation after the war
Seamstress
When and where were you married?
Married in 1945 to Mendel Staviskowski in DP camp; 1957 to Sam Gordon in Detroit; 1962 to Harvey Vinton in Detroit
Spouse
Mendel Stawis, Sam Gordon, Harvey Vinton,
Mendel was a cantor, Sam owned Gordon's Variety Store, Harvey was a commercial sign painter
Children
Mimi Stawis Gross, Allen Stawis, H. Bonnie Gordon/Togal Growe, Jeffrey Vinton
Grandchildren
Matthew Gross, Samantha Gross Reiser, Marek Stawis, Elisheva Stawis Zigdon, Malka Stawis Rosenbloom, Ari Stawis, Rachelli Stawis Ungar, Marrin Togal Itenberg, Seth Togal, Jake Vinton, Brett Vinton
What do you think helped you to survive?
The will to live and to keep her sister and cousin alive.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
My mother always said - "watch all around you, it can happen again".
Interviewer:
Information provided by daughter, H Bonnie Gordon/Togal Growe
Interview date:
07/29/2026
