
Women in the barracks of the newly liberated Auschwitz concentration camp. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Women in the barracks of the newly liberated Auschwitz concentration camp. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Women in the barracks of the newly liberated Auschwitz concentration camp. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Airedl January 27th, 2025.
Today we are honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day to reflect on the lives lost, resilience of survivors, and lessons we must never forget. Dr. Mark Glick is the only living child of Polish Holocaust Survivors.
“ My parents were born in Poland, about 35 miles apart. My father in a town called Vilna and my mother in a town called Oceana, which would be in modern day Belarus.”
When the holocaust came, it was very difficult for Glick’s parents. They had two different experiences according to Glick.
“My mother was all of her family was killed other than she and her cousin, who were taken to a series of labor camps and concentration camps where they did a lot of manual labor. My father, when the Germans came to his town, they shot all his family, his parents, his brothers and sisters. And he and two of his sisters were able to escape out of the back of their house. And they actually spent the war hiding in caves in the forest in Poland.”
After the holocaust, it was love at first sight for Glick’s parents.
“So after the Holocaust, people tended to go back to their towns to look for survivors. So many people had been killed that, you know, they wanted to try to reconnect. And my parents met in a displaced persons camp. They looked for survivors. Really didn’t find any. The story goes that my father was delivering supplies to the displaced person’s camp. He saw my mother and winked at her, and a week later they were married.”
His parents made the decision to migrate to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1949.
“All of their families had been killed. They had no homes. Their homes now were occupied by other people who would not give it back. So, they were looking for places to make a new start. And there were very severe laws that limited immigration into the United States. It took my parents about four years till they could actually find someone. My mother’s uncle, who happened to live in Philadelphia, who could sponsor them, bring them to this country and give them a job and a place to live.”
Listen to the podcast to hear more.