place:"Warsaw, Poland (Russia), Europe" found 1 record - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network

Notes: Michael (Moses) Zimmerman was born on October 2, 1907 in Warsaw, Poland (Russia), to modern orthodox Jewish parents. The family was wealthy and had a live-in governess who was Jewish. From 1915 to 1918 the family lived in Moscow. Moses remembers the Kerensky revolution in March 1917 as peaceful. The Bolshevik revolution in October, however, was bloody -- the family was terrified and hid in the basement of their house in the city's centre. Moses describes the regime of terror -- his father's property was confiscated, his customers were murdered, bread rations were only available for the children. The Zimmerman’s returned to Poland in 1918 -- Russian soldiers smuggled them across the border. Moses had been schooled by a private tutor for eight years; he had no contact with Polish children. He attended gymnasium and then Polish university. Moses wanted to be an engineer and was accepted to a polytechnic college, graduating in 1933. He began working at a German firm in 1934. In August 1939 all men over the age of 21 had to go to the army for two years. They rejected Moses -- no officer would be called Moses. On September 6-7, 1939, at night, Moses left Warsaw with 200,000 other men. They were sure that the Allies would destroy Germany quickly. On September 17, Moses arrived in Lvov to meet his girlfriend, Elizabeth. Moses and his sister were taken to Russia by cattle car. He lived in barracks and worked cutting trees. Moses escaped with another couple to Kazan. The men were captured at the train station and interrogated by the KGB. In November 1940, Moses was sent to a Gulag for three years for attempting to escape from the camp. He worked in the forests in the middle of winter, marching 6 km to work without proper clothing or adequate meals. In June 1941 Moses was transferred to an electrical plant on the Arctic Ocean, near Finland, to work as an engineer. When the war was declared Moses moved to the Urals above the Arctic Circle. The Polish government-in-exile, in London, charged the Russians with organizing a Polish army to fight alongside Russia. Moses went to Poland and was examined -- Jews were rejected because they were "too weak" to fight. American Jewish organizations were told of this unofficial policy and they protested until a second army commission was appointed. Moses lied about having to support a family and was exempted from military service. The Soviets were being evacuated from Moscow and Leningrad -- Moses took the train with them to an area near Iran. They arrived in central Asia and Moses worked in the cotton fields. He travelled to a Polish help organization; later returning as their representative, he opened a school for peasant children and orphans. The Russians soon replaced the Poles and Moses was without work. In 1944 he was forced to take Russian citizenship; however, he managed to retain his Polish Jewish identity. After liberation on May 8, 1945, Moses married a Polish woman. They returned to Poland by train, arriving in Shamash to intense hostility on the part of the Polish population. A few weeks later the Kielce pogrom was perpetrated upon the Jewish population and the Zimmermans traveled to Breslau. Moses' parents and two sisters had been deported from the Warsaw ghetto and murdered in Treblinka in 1943. In late October 1946 Moses and his wife paid off border guards to escape out of Poland through Czechoslovakia -- Moses was thrilled to leave Poland as he hated it vehemently. They stayed in a DP camp in Salzburg, Austria. Moses approached JIAS and created a vocational school in an old brewery. The Zimmermans had a baby in 1948. The following year they applied to immigrate to Canada, arriving on June 24, 1950. Moses changed his name to Michael upon arrival to Canada. He applied for a job out of the newspaper and began working for Canadian Industrial Ltd. From 1953 to 1972 Michael worked for the CNR as an engineer and as a translator of Soviet research. He accepted a contract in 1971 and has been consulting for nine years with the USSR for the Canadian government and several private corporations. Michael discusses several his trips to the Soviet Union -- this work, and the red carpet treatment he receives from the Soviets, gives him deep satisfaction. Michael's son publishes technical manuals for a living.

Accession No.: WTH-243

Name Access: Zimmerman, Michael

Places: Warsaw, Poland (Russia), Europe

Archival / Genealogical: Archival Descriptions

Repository: Montreal Holocaust Museum

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Zimmerman, Michael - Oral History of a Holocaust Survivor

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AmvpEcay9pc