Henry was a member of the Polish army.  In 1939, he was captured by the Nazis.  Henry arrived at Auschwitz and was instructed to stand in line with the throngs of people waiting an unknown destiny.  

 

He noticed another line where people were getting their forearms tattooed with numbers.  When the guard had his back turned he quickly switched to the tattoo line assuming that people getting tattooed would be kept alive. 

The man who was giving the tattoos told him he was lucky!  If he would have been spotted switching lines they would have shot him on the spot, although the original line lead to the gas chambers. 

 

After liberation he was sent to a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Stockholm, Sweden.  There he met his wife Mina Sczupak.  They married in 1947 and had a daughter Shirley.  Henry’s father had a sister who lived in Detroit since the 1920’s and she sponsored his family and him to come to America.  They moved to Detroit in 1949.  They lived in Detroit until 1961 then moved to Oak Park.   

 

Henry was a carpenter by trade, but eventually sold produce six days a week in a modified pick-up truck for thirty two years.  He was a member of B’nai B’rith and Shaarit Haplaytah Holocaust survivor organizations.  He raised and supported his family then retired to Florida with his wife Mina

To learn more about this survivor, please visit
The Holocaust Memorial Center Oral History Collection.
https://www.holocaustcenter.org/visit/library-archive/oral-history-department/martin-henryk-henry/

 

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