Peter Avram Zuckerman, as he is now known, was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1929. The family was poor but Peter received a good elementary school education. His single-parent mother was terminally ill and died in 1941. Peter was sent to the country to live with his aunts. He became a printer’s apprentice where he was essentially an indentured servant for which he worked six days a week in return for board and room. During this time, World War II raged in most of Europe but was little noted in the small village of Nyirbator where Peter was living.
This all changed in the spring of 1944 when Germany occupied Hungary and installed a fascist government. In 1944, most of the Hungarian Jewish community were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Peter was one of these individuals and a summary of his experiences is:
May 6, 1944 to May 25: Simapuszta Ghetto in Hungary.
May 30 to October 27: Auschwitz as prisoner A-9867.
October 28 to November 17: Stutthof.
November 19 to February 13, 1945: Hailfingen as prisoner 41018.
February 14 to April 6: Camp Wiesengrund.
April 7: He was liberated by French Army.
Following the liberation, he was a ward in various displaced person camps, included the German village of Neuenbuerg. As an orphan, he was given some choice in choosing a permanent home and he chose the United States. On January 25, 1947, he sailed into New York past the Statue of Liberty which was a very emotional experience. He was drafted into the US Army and served in occupied West Germany in the 2nd Armored Division. After this he became a US citizen.
He obtained a Master’s degree at UCLA in management and accounting. He was a CPA briefly but drifted more to data processing, computers, information technology, and publishing. He worked in local government, the aerospace industry, and for nonprofit organizations.
He and his wife live in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. At 77 years, he is still working as a consultant, principally for educational conferences and in information technology. He publishes in print and on the web. In print, his self-published book, “ Beyond the Holocaust: Survival or Extinction? ”, has met with some success. His hope is to improve the world where there is a need for bettering conditions even today. Otherwise, there may be a return to the experiences of his youth.
I will return and fill in some of the details of this outline in following notes.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.