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.