Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
Immigration to America
Now you had come straight to Detroit. Well, you came first to New York I assume, and then.
Yeah, he came to New York and then to Detroit.
When you and your parents came UM, when you got to New York what was the procedure that you had to follow?
You just got off uh, the boat and uh, you were pointed out apparently to the people who picked you up. And then she went into great shouts of "cousin" and kissed everybody in sight. And I didn't know her and my mother said she wouldn't have recognized her. They had to come and pick you up.
From Detroit.
From New York. Then in New York we lived in, in the HIAS for awhile. And then they said they didn't want a concentration of refugees in New York. So they assigned everyone to go to the city where their sponsor was. And our sponsor lived in Detroit. So they gave us a ticket, go to Detroit.
Um, this was a cousin who lived in Detroit?
Yes, my mother had numerous cousins. There were seven of 'em in the States.
And how long had the cousin lived here?
Oh he came after World War I. They've been here along time.
What was the name?
Katz. One was Schultsman here and the others were Katz. K-a-t-z. And there were seven of 'em.
So did they have to provide you
They had.
with jobs or?
No, they had to promise that they would support us for a year. But actually that was a paper promise because the Jewish community saw to it that they were not taxed. That they didn't really have to pay. Sothey helped us out for awhile and then my father got a job as a bookkeeper. And so we didn't need it. And they were very nice to me because I was working for a while and then I wanted to go back to school and we really didn't have that much money. So I had to ask their permission because then I might need help from them again. And they said I could, I could go back.
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