Helen moved to Łódź with her parents when she was five; her father was a tailor. Jack was born in Łódź – his father worked in a shoe factory. When the Nazis occupied Poland, Jack and Helen were 10 years old. When Jack and his parents were moved into the Łódź ghetto, Helen was already there with her family. They were both forced to work in German factories located very close to each other, but they did not meet each other until the end of the war.
In 1944, Helen was sent with her mother to Auschwitz, then to a labor camp near Hamburg, and from there to Bergen-Belsen, where she remained until the liberation in 1945. Jack was sent to Auschwitz in the same year as Helen.
In 1947, Jack went to Germany to meet up with his mother. There he met Helen; they got married and emigrated to the United States in the same year. A year later, Jack joined the U.S. Army, and later imported typewriters to the United States .
In 1955, he founded Commodore, later inventing the world’s first processor and producing the Commodore Pet, the world’s first personal computer. Following his enormous success with Commodore, he went on to build Atari computers. Since that time, Jack Tramiel has been recognized throughout the world as the “father of the personal computer.”
The Tramiels never forgot their roots. For years, they have supported Jewish and educational institutions, seeing deep meaning in giving and sharing their wealth with others.
Jack Tramiel passed away at home in California in 2012, surrounded by his loving family.
Helen Tramiel, née Goldgrub and Jack Tramiel née Trzmiel
