Michael Berkowicz: Carving Out A Life in America After Family Flees Nazis, Communism & Anti-Semitism

Luke Barber interviews Michael Berkowicz. Born in Siberia during World War II, Berkowicz’s family returned to Poland after the war to find their lives would be forever altered. Having fled the country before the Nazi invasion in 1939, Berkowicz’s father worked in a coal mine in Siberia and later returned to Poland to find that practically no one in their family had survived the Holocaust. Growing up in a war ravaged country, Berkowicz and his family faced continued threats from anti-semites and later repression from the Communist regime that would gain power. The family later fled to the United States where Michael was able to carve out a life for himself.