In 1939, the Russians took over when Hitler and Stalin made a deal. They treated the Jews better than the Poles did. The Russians did deport some higher-class Jews to Siberia, but my father bribed the Russians not to deport us. In 1941, Germany invaded Poland and came to Lvov. The Germans stopped Jews like me from going to school. They put Jews to work and took away homes and established a ghetto. About 130,000 Jews lived in Lvov in 1939, and that number had increased to 160,000 by 1941. After the war, there were only 200 left. 

We worked to make armaments and fix vehicles. Every day, the Germans would come to the ghetto and take people to Belsen to gas and burn their bodies. In 1943, the Germans closed the ghetto and put me and my father in jail, which lasted for a year. The rest of my family was gone. In July 1944, the Russians approached, and the Germans took us to jail in Krakow. 

In 1945, we were taken to Auschwitz as the Russians approached again. On January 22, 1945, the Russians liberated Auschwitz, but the Germans took me on a death march. It was on this march that my father died. It was winter, and farmers kicked us out, so we ate raw potatoes that we dug up. This death march lasted two weeks. We were moved first to Gliwitz, then Flossenberg, and then to Dachau. On April 29, 1945, we were liberated at Dachau. Some of the Germans put on civilian clothes to escape. I was put in a tent and later a hospital for 6 months. German doctors took care of us, as American doctors were not available. After the hospital, I went to Feldafing, a DP camp.

When I got better, I went to Munich. I got married there in 1946. I met my wife in the Dachau hospital. We stayed there until August 14, 1949, when we sailed to America. We chose Detroit because my wife had a cousin here. I was only 21.