I was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1921.  Before the war, I lived with my grandmother and mother and worked in my mother’s small grocery store after school.  I was very devoted to my family.  When the war broke out, I escaped to Russia, but returned to Warsaw to help protect my mother who refused to leave Poland.  I had blond hair and blue eyes and was able to smuggle items into the ghetto. My mother died in the war.  From 1939 to 1945 I was in six different camps: Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Platling. 

 

After the war, I was in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany where I met Fay Gutman and the two of us married. Our son Simon Lucien was born in Paris, France in 1947.  Our daughter Betty Rae was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948. When I first came to Detroit, I worked at Tomboy Super Market.  I later owned my own super market in Garden City, Michigan and then owned my own liquor store in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  I’ve never been a financially wealthy person, but I measure my wealth by my relationships.  I cherished my wife, children and grandchildren.                                                                                

Cherish and protect your family.