Mike Gerstner, 82, of Beaumont, died Thursday, December 6, 2007 at Harbor Hospice in Beaumont. A native of Chozanow, Poland, he was brought to Beaumont in 1951 by the Beaumont Jewish Federation.
A Holocaust survivor, he was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. He was first placed in a death camp in 1939 when he was 14. Shortly after World War II began in Europe, he and his family were deported to a ghetto and then later to Auschwitz, where his mother, brother, and grandmother died in the gas chamber. His sister died of malnutrition only days after she was liberated from Bergen Belsen. He and his father performed hard labor for the Germans and were sent to several camps and finally Buchenwald, one of the largest of the camps, where they became separated. It was only after coming to Beaumont that he found out his father was alive and living in Israel, where Mike visited him in 1961 — one of the happiest moments of his life.
He initially worked as a baker for Rao’s and then as a salesman for a number of men’s clothiers in the area and ultimately retired from Norman’s Men’s Clothing.
Survivors include his extended family, Marie Roach and her children, Lisa M. Roach and Lamar A. Roach, Jr.; and friends and neighbors.
Graveside service will be 3:00 p.m., Friday, December 7, 2007 at Kol Israel Cemetery under the direction of Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont.
Memorial contributions may be made to Temple Emanuel, 1120 Broadway, Beaumont, Texas 77701.
