Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991

Jewish Agencies

Do you remember if any agencies helped you in Detroit?

The Jewish agency.

The Jewish Welfare Federation.

Yeah, that was one. And then the Quakers are the ones who came and helped us a lot.

Oh really.

And tried to provide a social life, especially for people like my parents who they thought would feel uh, you know, the immigration harder because it's always a step down. So they did and the Jewish community already, whatever, the social services I think it was. And then there were several department stores who provided clothing. The stuff they didn't sell on the sales they would put on wax and then we could go over there and pick out clothes, which helped.

Where did you live in Detroit?

We boarded. We got a, a room on uh, Euclid near12th, you know that area.

It's a Jewish neighborhood.

Yeah. And uh, these ladies would rent rooms to people. And the bathrooms had two doors and they rented to several. And if you wanted to go out in the morning you had to be swift to lock that door and then lock the other to make sure you had the bathroom. It wasn't very comfortable living, but all this seemed minor.


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