United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Lucy Gliklich (1932-) was born to Gershon (Pinkas) and Shifra Gliklich in Nisko, Poland, where her father worked as a butcher. After World War II broke out in 1939, Lucy, her brother Morris (Moniek, 1934-), and their mother went into hiding first in Nisko, then in a barn of a farmer in a neighboring town. They remained in hiding until November 1944. Lucy’s father meanwhile was recruited to the Polish army in 1939, taken prisoner of war, and sent to a labor camp in Stalowa Wola, Poland where he worked in a munitions factory. The family reunited after Lucy’s father managed to escape. In November 1944, the Soviet Army entered Nisko and the Gliklichs were the only Jewish family that remained. The family was exiled to Siberia until the end of the war, when they went to Germany and ultimately escaped from the Russian sector of Germany to the American zone of Berlin. Lucy and her family settled in Berlin-Schtachtensee displaced persons camp from August 1946 until March 1948, when the camp closed. From there, they went to Rosenheim displaced persons camp, where Lucy married Morris Breitbart in March 1949. With support from Lucy’s father’s cousin, the couple immigrated to the United States in December 1949. The remainder of Lucy’s family immigrated to the United States in 1951. Morris Breitbart (1919-1976) was born Moritz Brejtbart to Samuel and Kreindel (Piotrkowska) in Szczakowa, Poland. In September 1939, the Germans burned Szczakowa and Morris and his family relocated Zelów. Sometime thereafter, Morris and his family were forcibly moved to the Łódź ghetto. In 1943, Morris, his parents and two younger sisters, Rose and Bronia, were sent on a transport to Treblinka to be killed. Morris, his uncle and two cousins escaped from the train and hid in the woods. They made their way to the home of a farmer that his uncle knew and asked him for help. Morris remained outside the farmer’s home to keep watch for German soldiers, and when he looked through the windows saw that the farmer had killed his uncle and cousins. Morris fled the farm and eventually took refuge with a woman named Genia Bejenkow in the village of Nowa Wola. He initially lived in the woman’s attic but was moved to a hole under the stables after Germans searched the area. Morris remained there until his liberation in 1944. From Poland, Morris went to Germany with the hope of immigrating to the United States. By 1948, he had finished dental school in Munich and opened an office in Traunstein. In 1949, he married Lucy Gliklich at the Rosenheim displaced persons camp. Together, they immigrated to the United States in December 1949.
box folders 1 24
The Morris and Lucy Breitbart papers are arranged as three series: • Series 1: Documents, 1943-1956 • Series 2: Breitbart family photographs, 1912-1948 • Series 3: Gliklich family photographs, 1920’s-1966
The Morris and Lucy Breitbart papers contain documents and photographs concerning Morris Breitbart of Szczakowa, Poland and his wife, Lucy Gliklich of Nisko, Poland, whom he married at the Rosenheim displaced persons camp after World War II in 1949. Included in the collection is a diary written by Morris while he was in hiding in Poland from 1943 until 1944, postwar documents regarding his credentials as a dentist, immigration to the United States, and restitution claims against the German government. Photographs in this collection depict the Gliklich family before the war in Nisko, Poland, after the war in the Berlin-Schtachtensee displaced persons camp, and depict the Breitbart family in Szczakowa, Poland and the Zełow ghetto between 1940 and 1943. The Morris and Lucy Breitbart papers comprise photographs and documents that detail the couple’s war time experiences, family situations before World War II, and life immediately after the war ended. The documents in this collection almost exclusively pertain to Morris’s life between 1943 while he was in hiding in Poland until 1956, when he received notice the he had been granted United States citizenship. Material documenting Morris’s wartime experiences include a diary he kept on scraps of paper while in hiding in an attic and then a barn. The diary describes his circumstances and feelings during the Holocaust. Post-war materials comprised in this collection document Morris’s career as a dentist and includes a trade union identification card, certifications of coursework, and a student identification card from the Munich Dentistry Institute. Also include are several certificates Morris obtained in 1949 shortly after his marriage, presumably as part of his immigration preparation. Restitution paperwork and naturalization paperwork is also comprised within. The only document in this collection that pertains to Lucy is a diploma she received while living in the Berlin-Schtachtensee displaced persons camp in 1946, which authorized her to work as a radio telegraphist. The photographs here within depict the Breitbart family largely before the war in Szczakowa, Poland in 1939 and earlier and in the Zelów ghetto between 1939 and 1943. Some of the images from Zelów depict Morris and his friends wearing the Star of David. Also included are pictures of Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army in the 1920s and one image from a forced labor camp in Poland. Pictures of the Gliklich family are primarily from the post-war period and depict the family in the Berlin-Schtachtensee displaced persons camp, their immigration to the United States, and life in New Jersey in the 1950s and 1960s.
Morris and Lucy Breitbart papers