Morris Freibaum: Born in Warsaw, Poland “If there were no religion, we could accomplish a lot. Everybody has a right to exist and live the way they want to. Everybody has a different case. I only know what tragedy that was”. I was born in Warsaw, Poland, where my father was in the furniture business. When the Germans came in, my entire education was stopped, and my family was put into the ghetto. I ran away from the ghetto in 1940 and six months later could not get back to see my family. I was on my own and survival became hand to mouth. I even had typhus and survived. When the Jews were being rounded up for Auschwitz, I chose to move around among the Poles. This simple decision meant that. instead of Auschwitz, I went to the work force in Radom, Germany, where I helped to build an underground ammunitions factory. From Radom, I spent three days in a train moving to Auschwitz. I was moved from camp to camp throughout Germany. As the allied bombing got closer. I was wounded by shrapnel that hit my leg. Unable to continue working, I was sent to Dachau to Block 28, and then on to the hospital where a French doctor saved my life. The wounded were released from this hospital, given a package by the Red Cross that contained civilian clothing, and loaded onto a boxcar. We were traveling through the mountains when the Americans blocked our way. The Germans unloaded us, and we spent the night wandering, but in the morning, May 2, 1945, we were liberated by the Americans. I was chosen to work for the American Army by a sergeant who taught me to fix gasoline stoves. I came to the United States and moved to the Bronx, New York. where I became a man of all trades a mechanic, a taxi driver, a garment worker, and a waiter. I married and had two daughters. I am now divorced and live in Florida permanently. I spend much of my time with the Jewish War Veterans of Delray. Dr. Siegel painted me in my hat. Morris considers his survival to luck at being in the right place at the right time. He thought that there was no one left from his family, but by accident found a lost aunt on his father's side. She had moved to Paris before the Holocaust. From this aunt, he received the photographs of his family, which Dr. Siegel placed in the background of the portrait.