JACK and the MACHINE

An Interactive Documentary


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Jack Tramiel: The War Years

Birth Details

Jack Tramiel's birth date and name are both contested on official records. This information is based on the earliest known record of Jack Tramiel, taken by a Nazi bureaucrat during Tramiel's internment in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

  • Born: 13 December 1928 alternatively 13 December 1927
  • Name: Juda Jacek Trzmiel aka Yehuda (Jewish) aka Idek ("little Juda")
    • Father: Abram Josef Trzmiel
    • Mother: Rifka Benzkowska aka Regina Silberman
Post war ITS document on the whereabouts of Jack Tramiel
ITS Document

Post-war tracing document details the whereabouts and family history of a young Jack Tramiel.

Litzmannstadt Ghetto 1939-1944

Jack Tramiel's life immediately become administered by the occupying Nazi administration.

  • Jack is put to work at Łagiewnicka 36, Łódź , Poland as a tailor
  • Helen Goldgrub, Jack's future wife whom moved to Łódź in 1933, works at Łagiewnicka 37, Łódź, Poland
Jack Tramiel's assigned workplace in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.
Łagiewnicka 36, Łódź, Poland

Concentration Camps 1944-1945

  • August 1944: sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland and held for twelve days
  • August or September 1944: sent to Neuengamme subcamp Hannover-Stöcken in Germany
  • Late 1944: moved to nearby Neuengamme subcamp Hannover-Ahlem
    • 22 December 1944: Abram Josef Trzmiel dies in Ahlem
    • 10 April 1945: Ahlem is liberated by Allied troops
Jack Tramiel's immigration log.
Marine Flasher Alien Passenger Manifest

American Immigration 1947

  • 29 October 1947: Jack Tramiel emigrates from Bremen, Germany
  • 10 November 1947: Jack Tramiel enters Ellis Island, New York