Paul Kreisman

"There should be peace in the world."

Name at birth

Falek Kreisman

Date of birth

11/10/1921

Where were you born?

Madyar Komyat, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine)

Where did you grow up?

Madyar Komyat, Czechoslovakia.

Name of father, occupation

Abraham, Businessman, sold carpentry supplies, moved to the United States before the World War I and moved back to Europe to be with family left in Europe.

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Aranka (Golda), Businesswoman, owned a fabric store.

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, Michael, Hai Surz, me, and another sibling .

Who survived the Holocaust?

Me and a cousin in Romania.

My family was sent to the ghetto in Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia, and then we were transported to a labor camp in Galicia, Poland (Ukraine). There, we worked chopping down trees that were used for buildings. At one point I escaped from the ghetto, but was caught in the street and sent to Romania.

At the end of the war, I found a cousin in Romania who survived in his own home. Afterwards, I returned to our family farm in Madyar Komyat, which became part of the Ukraine after the war.

In 1946 I married Serena Schwartz. We stayed in Ukraine with our children until 1969 when times began to be bad again for Jews. We immigrated to Detroit because I had some family here.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Mukacevo

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Galicia

Where did you go after being liberated?

I returned to my family farm in Madyar Komyat.

When did you come to the United States?

1969.

Where did you settle?

Detroit, MI.

How is it that you came to Michigan?

I had family here.