Names Not Numbers

Jack Gluck

Nyiregyhaza, Hungary

In Hiding

1943

Jack Gluck

Nyiregyhaza, Hungary

1943

Jack was born on March 3, 1943, in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. His father was a furniture manufacturer, and his mother was a homemaker. The family lived a normal life until 1944, when the Nazis invaded Hungary. At that time, there were 750,000 Hungarian Jews, but by April 1944, they were rounded up and placed in the yard of the synagogue, which had been converted into a ghetto.

Jack's family managed to escape with the help of gentile workers who worked with his father. These righteous gentiles hid the family in various homes for a few weeks, but as it became too dangerous, they were forced to flee. They took a train to Budapest using forged papers.

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In October 1944, Adolf Eichmann arrived in Hungary with the sole purpose of exterminating the Jews, even though the Nazis were losing the war at that point.

At the train station, Jack and his family were caught by the Nazis with their forged papers and were placed on a train headed to Auschwitz. However, Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish ambassador, was at the station and saved them by issuing Swedish passports for the entire family.

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After their rescue, Jack and his family stayed in Budapest until it was safe to return home.

Upon their return, they discovered that the KGB was searching for Jack's father at his factory. To escape persecution, the family fled first to Siberia, then to Prague, Brussels, and eventually to the United States.

Names Not Numbers

Jack Gluck

Jack Gluck

The End