Salo
After leaving school, Salo Blechner starts work in a textile company
in Munich. From January 1929 he works at Gebr. Koh & Comp., a menswear
factory in Berlin.
The nationwide campaign to deport Polish citizens at the end of October
1938 affects the Blechners. Although the other family members are able
to return to Munich, Salo is trapped in no-man's land between Poland and
Germany. Through the intervention of an Influential Polish member of the
family, Salo is able to return to Munich.
Salo's plan to emigrate to Cuba in Spring 1939 with his brother Oskar
collapses when his exit papers are found to be missing a signature. After
further unsuccessful attempts to emigrate the only chance for those members
of the family still in Germany is to flee to Switzerland. Despite having
a valid tourist visa, Salo and his parents are prevented from entry by
the Swiss officials. Back in Munich, Salo narrowly escapes arrest by the
Gestapo. He flees to Berlin where he is arrested on the 13th September
1939.
After six years of life-threatening imprisonment in concentration camps
and forced labour, he returns to Munich to search for the family and prepares
to emigrate to the USA. The American Military Government appoints him
temporary trustee of the old-established and well-known Munich sports
shop, Sport Münzinger.
A senior officer in the American army helps his application to emigrate
and he arrives in the United States May 1946.
Salo Blechner died 28th May 2007 in Boston.
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