Oral History Interview with Ephraim Glaser
Ephraim Glaser, born in 1922 in Cluj, Transylvania, Romania, describes his father, who was an Orthodox shochet, mohel and chazzan; a pogrom that took place in the courtyard of his family’s home when he was five years old; the changes that occurred when the Hungarian occupation began in 1940, including beatings and exclusion of Jews from public schools; attending cheder and yeshiva until 1943, when he was taken to a forced labor camp; escaping in 1944 because of his Aryan appearance and ability to speak German; posing as a Hungarian Christian and joining a German Army unit as a translator; being suspected as a Bolshevist and running away; finding refuge in a factory, whose owner, a baron, hid him in an unused oven; how his sister and her family hid in a Czechoslovakian monastery, but were deceived, returned to their home in August 1941, and sent on the last transport to Auschwitz; how his brother-in-law, an opera singer and cantor in Bratislava, was shot while singing for the Germans; fleeing to Miskolc in the Russian zone and being liberated at the end of 1944; the plundering of the Russians on the local population; returning to Cluj and being active in the Zionist underground movement, Bricha and transporting Jews illegally to Palestine; being accused of being a fascist by former friends who had become communists; going to Palestine and working on a kibbutz; the difficulties encountered among kibbutz members who stigmatized survivors like himself as being cowards who willingly submitted to their own slaughter; remaining silent for many years, not even telling his children about his experiences until later in his life; and how his silence and then finally talking about the Holocaust affected his children.
Date: | 08/10/1988 |
Interviewer: | Sylvia Brockmon |
Interviewee: | Ephraim Glaser |
Language: | English |
Subject: | Concentration camp escapes. Forced labor. Hiding places. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Romania--Personal narratives. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Romania. Jews--Persecutions--Romania. Jews--Romania--Cluj-Napoca. Orthodox Judaism. Passing (Identity) World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Romania. Men--Personal narratives. Cluj-Napoca (Romania) Israel--Emigration and immigration. Transylvania (Romania) Glaser, Ephraim, 1922- Berihah (Organization) |
Location: | Cluj, Romania Miskolc, Hungary Israel |
Permalink: | https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratzcollege.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-ephraim-glaser/ |
Audio Transcript | Time |
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1:03:20 |