Morris Galen was born in 1927 in Portland, Oregon to Isaac and Ruth Galen. His father arrived at Ellis Island with his family on September 3, 1907 from Kamenicz, Russia and came to Portland by train through Canada. The family name in Russia had been Matiches. It was changed at Ellis Island to Goldstein and Morrie …
Read MoreHarry Friedman, the youngest of four children, was born in Warsaw, Poland on August 7, 1918. He attended Jewish school and then gymnasium in Warsaw, eventually working in his parents’ wholesale hat business when he graduated. He describes his family as averagely Jewish, observing all holidays and keeping kosher at home. When the war started …
Read MoreBazil Freedman was born in Cape Town, South Africa on February 6, 1942 to Michael and Bessie Freedman. He grew up in a religious household in the suburbs of Cape Town, attending private schools and afternoon cheder. Bazil’s father died when he was 11 years old and his mother remarried when he was 18. He received …
Read MoreDavid Finkelstein was born in 1895 in Chaterisk, Ukraine. He immigrated to the United States in 1913, and settled in south Portland, Oregon where he already had a sister living. He worked with relatives at a junk shop upon his arrival. He lived close to the Neighborhood House, where he learned English and went to …
Read MoreJoseph Findling was born in Cologne, Germany on June 21, 1928 to Etla and Wolf David Findling. He and his four siblings was raised in an observant family, each attending a Jewish school until 1938 when all the Jewish children in his school were expelled. In October 1938, Joseph’s father was deported to Poland and Joseph …
Read MoreSylvia Feld was born on May 25, 1923, the fifth of ten children. Her parents were Avrom and Sarah Lipcyc, and they ran a leather shop in Zloczew, a small town outside of Lodz. The family lived a very comfortable, observant life, and her father even built a small synagogue in the town, as well …
Read MoreRuth Doctor Egert was born in Vienna, Austria on January 18, 1913. She grew up in a middle-class, observant family there and became a teacher for the city of Vienna in 1933. When the Nazis took over Austria in 1938, she lost her job. The family saw that life was going to be very hard and …
Read MoreSylvan Durkheimer was born March 14, 1893 in Burns, Oregon. Both of his grandfathers immigrated to the United States in their early teens to escape the military draft in Germany. His paternal grandfather, Kaufman Durkheimer, came to the US from Bavaria in 1839 and to Portland in 1865 by boat around South America. His maternal grandfather, …
Read MoreSally Cohn was born on September 26, 1934 in Portland, Oregon. Her parents Henry and Helen, lived in Heppner, Oregon, where Henry ran first a Dodge dealership and later raised sheep. Henry was the great grandnephew of Henry Heppner, for whom the town is named. Her grandparent’s came from the Posen area of Germany and came …
Read MoreMoses (Scotty) Cohen was born on March 10, 1902 in Glasgow, Scotland. He immigrated to Portland in 1911 with his mother and siblings; his father came to Portland five years earlier. Scotty lived with his father, mother, five brothers and three sisters in a small apartment in South Portland. His family was very poor. Scotty’s father …
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