Menachem Glaser
Name at birth
Menachem “Mendel” Glaser
Date of birth
12/01/1916
Where did you grow up?
Bersonov, Romania
Name of father, occupation
Alter Meir Eliyahu,
Religious studies teacher
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Shayna Rachel,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents, Dina (sister), Yocheved (sister), Abraham (brother), Yitzhak (brother), and I
Who survived the Holocaust?
Abraham, Yitzhak, and I (father died in 1929 before the war)
In September 1942 I was taken into the Hungarian army, I went AWOL (absent without leave) and was picked up in early 1943 by the Soviets. I was transported across the Urals in a cattle car. The majority did not survive the transport due to freezing conditions.
I was in the Soviet work camps until typhus killed most of the prisoners. Those of us who survived were placed in an infirmary and from there, in the beginning of 1944; I volunteered to join the Czech Brigade.
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
Where were you in the Former Soviet Union?
In Russia
Where did you go after being liberated?
Yablonitz, Czechoslovakia and then in late 1948 to Netanya, Israel
When did you come to the United States?
October 1957
Where did you settle?
Detroit, Michigan
How is it that you came to Michigan?
My wife, Bella, had an aunt who had come to the United States before the war who was living in the Detroit area. Bella’s surviving siblings settled in the area, with the exception of her sister Yoli who lived in New York.
Occupation after the war
Religious studies educator
When and where were you married?
September 7, 1947
Spouse
Bella Glaser,
Homemaker
Children
Malka Littman, educator and Aura Glaser, clinical psychologist
Grandchildren
Three: Amir, Ron, and Yoav Three great-grandchildren: Maya, Lexi and Lilly
What do you think helped you to survive?
Faith (bitachon), determination to see my family again, and my mother who came to me in a dream and told me that I would survive the war.
Interviewer:
Charles Silow
Interview date:
04/04/2011
To learn more about this survivor, please visit:
The Zekelman Holocaust Center Oral History Collection
https://www.holocaustcenter.org/visit/library-archive/oral-history-department/glaser-menachem/
https://www.holocaustcenter.org/visit/library-archive/oral-history-department/glaser-menachem/
Experiences
Survivor's map
