Jack Lipton
"Try your hardest to strengthen our own Jewish homeland, the state of Israel."
Name at birth
Yisroel Lipszyc
Where did you grow up?
Zloczew, Poland
Name of father, occupation
Avraham Shmuel Lipszyc,
Leather goods business
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Sura Gross,
Leather goods business and homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents, eight girls, and two boys: Rivka, Riva, Tova, Hersh, Golda, Mata, Naomi, Yisroel (Jack), Cesia (Sylvia), and Nacha
How many in entire extended family?
40
Who survived the Holocaust?
Sisters Sylvia, Nacha, and Jack
Jack was in the Polish army when the war broke out. He was eighteen years old. When he came back from the army, he was in a kibbutz in Poland. He hoped he would be able someday to go to Israel. He was married in 1940 to woman named Golda.
He worked for an electrical company as an electrician. This was his luck that helped him to survive, being an electrician for the Germans. However he always felt a great sense of guilt because the Germans forced him to make electric barbed wire used in the concentration camps.
He endured four labor camps in Poland and Auschwitz before escaping in 1945.
Jack owned his own electrical business in Germany before immigrating to the United States. He married Esther Kenofsky and they had three children.
He was a devoted volunteer at the Holocaust Memorial Center. He used his skills as an electrician for the Holocaust Memorial Center. He put in new fixtures, repaired old ones, corrected wiring problems, and installed new exhibits. He furnished all of the electrical supplies himself.
Name of Ghetto(s)
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
Where did you settle?
Detroit, Michigan
Occupation after the war
Electrician
Spouse
Esther Knofsky
Children
Alan, Bill, and Maxine
What do you think helped you to survive?
He hoped that someday we would all be free and be in our own land, the land of Israel. His life was Israel.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
Try your hardest to strengthen our own Jewish homeland, the state of Israel.
Interviewer:
Biography told by Jack Lipton’s sister, Nancy Fordonski
Interview date:
07/29/2013
Experiences
Survivor's map
