Adam Kirszenbaum

"Be a Mensch (a good person)."

Name at birth

Abraham Aron Kirzenbaum

Date of birth

04/24/1920

Where were you born?

Warsaw, Poland

Where did you grow up?

Warsaw, Poland

Name of father, occupation

Jehil, Accountant

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Malka Hanover, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, Edil Fishel, me and Pesa

How many in entire extended family?

Grandparents and uncles

Who survived the Holocaust?

Just myself

I was born in Warsaw, Poland. At 19 I was in the Warsaw ghetto with my family. I escaped at night with a female friend. I walked to Bialystock, Russia. I had to choose between becoming a Russian citizen and being sent to a Siberian labor camp. I went to the labor camps and cut trees in frigid weather. I was then sent to Buchara, Russia. I met my future wife in Buchara, but wouldn’t marry her because I wanted my family in Poland to attend the wedding. Unfortunately, my entire family perished in the Holocaust.

After the war, I went back to Poland for a year and a half, and then left for Detroit. I changed my name from Abraham to Adam. I became a citizen in 1955.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Warsaw

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Buchara / Siberian Labor Camps

Where were you in the Former Soviet Union?

Bialystock, Siberia, Buchara

Where did you go after being liberated?

Poland, near Germany

When did you come to the United States?

1947

Where did you settle?

Detroit, Michigan