She was born in 1888 in Kamionka near Oswiecim. I remember my mother's year of birth but not the exact date. Actually, I don't know where that Polish name came from, but it had to be there for the reissuing of the birth certificate: I gave the Polish name and they found the old birth certificates in the registry office and wrote both names in. All the time I only use the one name of my mother, Bronislawa. I had that birth certificate reissued in 1947 in Bielsko with the help of two witnesses who knew me before the war and certified to who I am. My mother was called Brejndl, but on my birth certificate she is entered as Brejndl Bronislawa, nee Wetstein. I only know that my parents' marriage was arranged. It was not far from Kamionka to Plaza and my parents are sure to have met somewhere around there. I don't know how it is there now - the Jewish cemetery in Oswiecim, whether it's there or not. As for my mother's parents, I don't know, but I think in Oswiecim. Presumably my grandparents on my father's side are buried in Plaza. I've never been to my grandparents' grave.

Then we would sell them there at the market. I remember taking milk and other food products to Chrzanow with someone from that family. Even then my father's sister lived there. I don't really know how well-off that family in Plaza was. If I remember rightly the maiden name of my grandmother on my father's side was Kupermann. There wasn't a synagogue there, because it was very close to Chrzanow. There were other Jews living in Plaza too and, like my grandparents, they had farms. Both families lived in the country and were farmers.Īs far as I know my grandparents weren't religious - on my mother's side more so than on my father's side, but I can't say anything more precise. From my father's side they lived in Plaza near Chrzanow. Generally speaking I can say only that I think my grandparents on my mother's side lived in Kamionka near Oswiecim. My parents mentioned their parents, but not much. My sister was from 1912, my brother 1914, and I was 1923, so when I was a child my grandparents may already have been dead.

I always went by the name of Leon, even before the war, in school and everywhere, but I think my given name is Lazar. I was born Glaser, but I had to change my father's surname immediately after the war because German surnames were compulsorily, automatically Polonized.

My name is Leon Glazer and I was born on 13th June 1923 in Bielsko. He has the feeling that neither of these careers were ones he would have chosen - in a way he was forced into them - but he says that teaching would have appealed to him more. He spent 20 years in the army as a political officer and 15 in schools as a teacher. Glazer is very short, holds himself erect, and wears large spectacles. But with names of military formations he never hesitates: their names roll off his tongue, even though he may last have seen them as a child during a 3rd May parade (Polish Constitution Day) in his home town of Bielsko. Glazer often has to stop and think about dates, names and events. He says that since his children have moved out there is even too much room in the apartment. Leon Glazer has lived for 30 years with his wife on a residential estate in Cracow, in a three-room apartment that is clean, neat and bereft of any superfluous clutter.

Polish oath of loyalty 1953