Simon Goldman Oral History

Simon Goldman Oral History

An interview with Simon Goldman, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan--Dearborn. Simon Goldman was born in Lódz, Poland and had three brothers and a sister. His father owned a moving business while his mother stayed at home. Shortly after the German occupation of Lódz, his mother passed away and his father moved the family to a small town near Czestochowa, Poland. There the family moved into a relative's house and Simon and his brother worked in a bakery. Around 1942, Simon passed himself off as a Polish orphan to obtain work at a farm where he stayed incognito for the duration of the war until the area was liberated in 1945. After the war he went back to Lódz looking for his brother and other family members. He got into trouble with the police for being involved with the Lódz black market. Simon then decided to go to Linz, Austria to find a cousin. Simon was detained for not having papers, but made it to Linz on Yom Kippur and found his cousin at the DP camp. Simon was eventually arrested by the CIA for being involved in another black market in the DP camp but he was released after thirty days. Upon his release, Simon registered with the U.S. Committee to move to America. He was sent to New York in December 1946 and later the Jewish Health System set him up with a family in Detroit

Bolkosky, Sidney M

Goldman, Simon

2003-06-06