Mike Gluck

"We were beaten because we were Jewish but I would never give up. My friend was sick in the camp and went to the infirmary. I told him not to go. He died there. I wouldn’t go to the infirmary. I was a fighter and would not give up. I would not let them get the best of me."

Name at birth

Michael Gluck

Date of birth

03/03/1928

Where were you born?

Kantorjanosi, Hungary

Where did you grow up?

Kantorjanosi, Hungary

Name of father, occupation

Luke Ferenc Gluck, Meat seller, butcher

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Edith Schwartz, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents and seven children: my brother Joseph, my sister Margit, and I survived. Three sisters and one brother did not survive.

How many in entire extended family?

My mother was an only child. My father’s family came to the United States before the war. Some went to France and did not survive. There are still cousins in the United States on my father’s side.

Who survived the Holocaust?

My brother Joseph, my sister Margit, and me

The Nazis came to our hometown; all Jews were taken to the Shul, the Synagogue. It was Passover.

Then we were taken to the ghetto in Mateszalka for about four to six weeks. My father was well known and liked; people brought him food. Sometimes at night, my father would take off his yellow star and leave the ghetto to find food.

He wasn’t very religious at that time. The rabbis told the people in the camps to pray to be safe, but not to fight, so no one fought. The less religious people left before those who stayed were taken. The orthodox stayed.

From the Mateszalka ghetto, the whole family was taken to Auschwitz. My sister Margit had previously left for Budapest.

It was very bad at Auschwitz. When we got off the train, Mengele was there and pointed one way for my father, brother and me and the other way for my mother and the younger sisters. They were taken to the gas chamber. I never saw them again. I was 14 or 15 years old.

I was at Auschwitz for eight to ten days. From there I was sent to Mauthausen. I did hard labor carrying stones from the stone quarry there. I was separated from my father and brother. My father died in one of the concentration camps.

From Mauthausen, I went to another camp, Gusen II. I was there for a year where I also worked at hard labor in a quarry and in a mine. Then I got a job in the kitchen where I survived by stealing food, both to eat and to barter with.

I was liberated on a Friday night by American soldiers. After liberation I went to the hospital for three weeks because I was so rundown and weak. Then I went to Germany where I stayed for a couple months.

After the war, I went back to my hometown of Kantorjanosi, Hungary but nothing of my previous life was left there.

I came to the United States in 1949, first to New York, then to Detroit where I found family. I came to Detroit at Pesach (Passover) and stayed there. In New York, I worked in the meat business doing boning.

I met my wife Shirley in Detroit and we were married in 1952 in a Shul (Synagogue). She was a homemaker who raised our five children, two sons Brian and Alan, and three daughters, Jette, Cindy and Norri.

We have ten grandchildren, Brent, Blake, Brandon, Breanna, Ian, Aiden, Alyssa, Megan, Jeffrey and Lisa.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Hungary / Mateszalka

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Auschwitz Birkenau / Gusen II / Mauthausen

Where did you go after being liberated?

Kantorjanosi, Hungary

When did you come to the United States?

1949

Where did you settle?

Detroit, Michigan

Occupation after the war

Meat business

When and where were you married?

1952

Spouse

Shirley Gluck, Homemaker

Children

Five children, two sons Brian and Alan, and three daughters, Jette, Cindy and Norri.

Grandchildren

We have ten grandchildren, Brent, Blake, Brandon, Breanna, Ian, Aiden, Alyssa, Megan, Jeffrey and Lisa.

What do you think helped you to survive?

I knew that I would never give up.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

We were beaten because we were Jewish but I would never give up. My friend was sick in the camp and went to the infirmary. I told him not to go. He died there. I wouldn’t go to the infirmary. I was a fighter and would not give up. I would not let them get the best of me.