A Lucky Child

Mundek Buergenthal was Buergenthal’s father. He was a bank officer in Germany before fleeing to Czechoslovakia during the Nazi rise in Germany. Together with his wife Mutti, he kept his family alive for most of their internment. He frequently assured Buergenthal that the Germans would lose the war and, on many occasions, saved his life. Mundek died in a concentration camp shortly before the war ended.

Gerda, or “Mutti,” Buergenthal was Buergenthal’s mother. She was sent to live at Mundek’s hotel in Czechoslovakia by her parents and was engaged to him three days later. Mutti’s quick thinking and bravery saved the lives of herself, her family, and their friends on several occasions. While on the run, a fortune teller told her that her son was a lucky boy and that he would survive the Holocaust. When they were separated for over two years after arriving at Auschwitz, the fortune gave her the strength to survive to one day be reunited with her son. After liberation, she located Buergenthal and they lived together in Germany. She remarried twice and later moved to Italy.

Eric Silberg was Buergenthal’s maternal uncle who lived in the United States during the Holocaust. After the war ended, Eric helped Mutti find Buergenthal in a Polish orphanage. When Buergenthal moved to the United States in 1951, he lived with his uncle Eric and his family.

Rosa and Paul Silbergleit were Buergenthal’s maternal grandparents. She and her husband Paul lived in Göttingen, Germany, before the Nazis forced them to sell their shop and sent them to a ghetto. Mundek arranged for Rosa and Paul to be transferred to the Kielce ghetto with them, where Buergenthal formed a relationship with them before the Nazis murdered them in the liquidation of the ghetto.

Michael and Janek were Buergenthal’s friends from the Kielce ghetto. In Auschwitz, Michael, Janek, and Buergenthal became like brothers. They protected each other and helped each other survive, especially on the Auschwitz death march, which they were the only children to survive. They were separated in Sachsenhausen, when Buergenthal was confined to the infirmary, and he never saw them again.

Dr. Leon Reitter was a doctor who worked with Mutti in the labor camp at Henryków. After liberation, Mutti arranged for his emigration to Göttingen, Germany, and they married. He became a second father to Buergenthal before his untimely death at just 48 years old.

Buergenthal’s tutor, Otto Biedermann, was a formative figure in Buergenthal’s life. Otto was from Upper Silesia, expelled when it was taken-over by Poland. He emigrated to Göttingen as a refugee. He prepared Buergenthal to enter school after the Holocaust, introduced him to the joy of learning, and laid the intellectual foundation for Buergenthal’s future.