My name is Mayer Luden. I am the father of Anita Luden Greenwald. I was born in Eastern Poland, Tomaszow Lubleski in December 1926. In 1939, the Germans attacked Poland and within a few weeks they marched into own town. Our town had a population of about 20,000, out of which 10,000 were Jews. My father had a wholesale grocery business. I remember one incident when planes flew over our town they were German bombers and within a few minutes bombs dropped and the town was on fire and many people got killed. The section that was bombed was the Jewish section. I remember running the half block to my house and my mother was outside. She put a wet handkerchief over my face, we thought that there was poison in the air.

Within a week, the German army marched into our town. . . the first thing that happened, they killed about ten Jews. They were the teachers from the Jewish school. We were very scared. Our area where we lived was burnt out. We no longer had a home.

We went to live with another family. Within a week, the Germans left our town and the Russians came in. The reason for this change was that the Germans and the Russians were allies. Our town changed occupation several times. The last time the Russians came in we left with them. When the Russians came in they were very nice to us. Some of the Russian soldiers were Jewish and they identified themselves to us as such. When the Russians left town, my father decided to leave with them because we were very scared and many Jews from our town left with them also. We went with the Russians to the city Lvow. We stayed there for a year or so. . that is where my brother Saul was born.

One night there was a knock at the door and were were told to get dressed and take one suitcase. Trucks were waiting outside. We were loaded onto a truck and we were taken to a rialfoad with thousands like us. We were hoarded onto trains and we were taken to Siberia. We traveled for about two months under terrible conditions. We lived in Siberia under primitive conditions for a few years and during this time is when my little brother Saul died. Finally the Russians freed us and we went back to Poland.

Coming back we found out that we were the lucky ones and that most of the Jews and our relatives were no longer alive. I remember one incident as I was a teenager then, that I and two of my friends decided to visit my hometown and when we arrived we were arrested because we were Jews by the Polish Police. There were many incidents where the Polish Police and army still killed Jews even though Poland was already free. My friends and I were lucky. After a few days in jail they took us to the bus stop and told us to leave and never to come back.

Eventually we left Poland and went to Germany to the American Zone. There we went to a Displaced Persons Camp with many other survivors and we were helped throughout the Joint and many other Jewish Organizations. We were there for four years. At the DP camp I attended ORT school where I learned a trade. I was taught in the field of electronics.

In 1949, we immigrated to the United States on a DP quota and came to Bradley Beach, New Jersey. My mother had a sister living there. Eventually we went to New York. I lived in the Bronx with my parents and in 1952 to 1954 I was in the United States Armed Forces- during the Korean War. By the way, the most important thing in my life is I met my beautiful wife, Helga and after a long courtship married her while I was still in the army in 1954. We raised a beautiful family- three children and twelve grandchildren. God Bless America.