Abe Morgenstern photographs

Abraham (Abe) Morgenstern was born in Czortków, Poland (now Chortkiv, Ukraine) in 1923. His parents, Bazalel Morgenstern (1890-1942) and Nora Morgenstern (nee Granowska) were Russian Jews who moved to Czortków in 1921. His sister Lea Morgenstern (1925-1942) was born on April 4, 1925.

Abe attended both a Polish public school and a Jewish school. In June 1939 he graduated from business school at the age of sixteen and began work as a bookkeeper at the grain mill where his father also worked. In September 1939, Czortków was occupied by the Soviet Union and later occupied by the Germans in June 1941.

In April 1942, the Morgenstern family was forced to move into the Czortków ghetto. On August 26, 1942 during the first action, Abe was selected to retrieve the bodies of Jewish victims that were killed within the ghetto. He escaped the action by hiding in a cellar. Following the action, Abe was reunited with his mother, who had also survived. His father and sister, however, were deported to the Belzec killing center where they died in August 1942.

In October 1942, Abe and his mother were among approximately thirty people who survived the second action hiding together in a cellar under a kitchen floor. Sometime in late 1942 or early 1943, Abe’s mother traded her remaining jewelry in return for placement on a list of Jews to be sent from the ghetto to work on a farm/work camp in Svydova, approximately 15 miles away from Czortków. In April 1943, Abe and his mother, along with over thirty people from the farm in Svydova, went to work on another farm in Ulashkovce. Abe and his mother both survived an action on the farm on November 30, 1943 and began hiding in a cave. They were liberated by the Russians on March 31, 1944. After liberation, they were reunited with a cousin, Jack Glaser, who had survived in hiding and was the sole survivor of his family. In 1945, Abe, his mother, and Jack made their way to Italy and entered the Santa Maria Di Bagni displaced persons camp. Abe’s mother immigrated to the United States before him and worked to secure an American visa for both Abe and Jack Glaser. On May 5th 1948, Abe and Jack sailed from Naples, Italy to New York. On March 20, 1949, Abe Morgenstern married Frances Melamed and they had two daughters, Rosalee and Carol.