Morris and Lucy Breitbart papers

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.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.

Lucy Gliklich Breitbart donated her and her husband’s papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in three separate donations in 1996, 1997, and 2004. These three donations have been unified into this collection.