Who is Jack Gruener?
Jack Gruener (Yanek) was born in Krakow Poland on February 27th 1927 into a Jewish family. On September 6th of 1939 the Nazis invaded Krakow when he was twelve. He and his family hid for about a year in a tiny apartment with about thirteen other families before his parents were taken and killed. Because he was an only child he was by himself and he hid for a few months before he was taken as well. Jack endured ten different camps and two death marches yet he miraculously made it out alive. He went on to marry another survivor in Brooklyn in 1959 and to enlist in the American Army and fight in the Korean War. He and his wife Ruth had two children and he works as a speaker with his wife educating people about the Holocaust.
Where and when was he taken?
Jack was first brought to Plaszow Concentration Camp from 1942-1943 when he was thirteen, he was also chosen to work in the Wieliczka Salt Mine from 1943 to 1944. He was then sent to Trzebinia Concentration Camp in 1944, and soon after he was shipped to Birkenau Death Camp from 1944-1945. In 1945 he was sent to Auschwitz Death Camp and was part of a fourteen day Death March. In 1945 Jack was sent to Sachsenhausen, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Gross-Rosen, a two day Death March, and Dachau where he was liberated by the Americans.