Murray was born in Kraków, Poland into a large Jewish family. He was one of six siblings. After the German invasion of Poland, Murray, his family, and other Jews were subjected to anti-Jewish measures. In 1942, Murray and one of his brothers were imprisoned in the Plaszow camp, where they were subjected to inhumane conditions and grueling forced labor. In May 1944, his brother was transferred to Auschwitz. In October, Murray was sent to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. He was then transferred to Brünnlitz, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. The Brünnlitz subcamp was run by businessman Oskar Schindler, who helped the Jewish forced laborers who worked for him survive the war. Murray was liberated in May 1945. None of his immediate family survived the Holocaust.
I came to Krakow, and I walked in, in mine apartment, and I told the woman immediately, "I absolutely don't want nothing from this apartment." All...everything that was in that apartment belonged to us. I didn't care for it. "I only want to write down a little note. If anybody from my family, by a miracle somebody survived, I am the second son of Leyzer Pantirer--I survive. And I'm registering myself in the Jewish community of Krakow. Where I'm gonna be, I don't know, but I...." So she said, "Sit down, have a cup of tea." She sent her son to the militia. The militia came up and said, "Why did you come here to make troubles?" I said, "What kind of troubles did I make? I just want to put down on my address, my apartment, I want to put down my name." And then we, as I have told you, we got some material, so we start selling it on the street, so either they will say "My nie kupujemy u żydów!--we don't buy stuff from a Jew," or they will say, "Look, they said they killed them. Look how many they are." So I was--among thousands, there were two Jewish boys or three Jewish boys trying to exchange, uh, for livelihood for stuff that they needed. They didn't want us. And in my ear they're constantly saying, "Żyd do Palestyny--Jew, go to Palestine."
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
