Yelizaveta Gleyzer
Name at birth
Yelizaveta Gleyzer
Date of birth
08/27/1929
Where were you born?
Where did you grow up?
Orhei, Romania
Name of father, occupation
Wolf Gleyzer,
Fabric store owner
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Esther Gleyzer,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents, Older sisters Raizel and Khaya, Yelizaveta
How many in entire extended family?
One on my father's side and six on my mother's side
Who survived the Holocaust?
Everyone in family
Our family lived in Romania until June 1940 when our part of the country, Bessarabia, was occupied by Russians and became a part of USSR. Our father was arrested as small business owner and sent to Siberia. We remain in Orhei until the war started in June 1941.
We were lucky to run from Nazis and settled in a village in the Ural region. We lived there for 3 years, worked in a kolhoz. I went to school. It 1944 my sisters who unsuccessfully tried to enroll in college and rejected as daughters of the enemy of the state, moved to Kazakhstan where our aunt from father’s site lived after escape from Orhei. They both enrolled in Medical School evacuated from Leningrad. I and my mother followed and moved to City of Kizil Orda, where I graduated from high school.
After the war I finished studying in Odessa College and was sent to work to a plant located in another Ukrainian city, Kharkov. I worked there for a short time until all the Jews working there were fired because that plant started to produce goods for the Soviet military.
I went to city of Kishinev, where my older sisters lived. Our home in Orhei was destroyed during the war. In Kishinev I found a job at a supply company and worked there until emigrating to US in 1993.
When did you come to the United States?
I came to the United States with my sister’s family in 1993 and settled in Oak Park, Michigan.
How is it that you came to Michigan?
We came here because my niece got married to a man whose sister emigrated to US in the 70s and lived in Michigan.
Occupation after the war
In Kishinev I worked at a supply company doing clerical job.
When and where were you married?
Never married
Children
No children
Interviewer:
History given by Yelizaveta's niece, Alla Milter and grand nephew, Boris Milter
Interview date:
10/09/2025
