My brother Henry ( fr. Heinz York) and I (fr. Günter Werner) were born in Frankkfurt a/M (FM), Germany on 4.04.27 and 07.08.23, respectively. Our father, Joachim Juda, was born on 21.02.1891 in Echzell-Gettenau, Wetteraukreis, Hessen. He was a Manufacturers’ Representative and died in Detroit on 4.18.69. Our mother, Erna was the youngest of six children of David Eichenberg. She was born on 05.01.00 in Frankfurt/M, married my father on 04.23.1922 and died on 02.10.89 in Southfield, MI.

My father fought in the German army in the first world war, first as a sergeant on the Russian front. After receiving a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant he volunteered for the German air force. He was shot down over Verdun in 1917, and remained a prisoner of war in France until 1920.

We moved to Düsseldorf in November 1927. I went to the municipal Brehmschule for four years of elementary school and then to Prinz-Georg Gymnasium, which after World War II was renamed Max-Planck Gymnasium. I quit the Gymnasium in April 1936 because of increasingly uncomfortable anti-semitic hazing and briefly attended the hastily-created Jewish Elementary School. From October 1936 until our emigration to the U.S., I attended Owen's School in London, England. We left Düsseldorf for New York in July 1938, and resettled in Detroit, Michigan in September of that year.

The first years of our re-settlement were difficult as we arrived in the United States virtually penniless, although fortunate enough to bring our household furniture along. I graduated Detroit Cass Technical High School in January 1941, went to work, first as a tool & die maker apprentice and then as a mechanical draftsman. In June 1943 I was drafted into the Army of the United States, From November until December 15, 1944, I served as an infantry intelligence radio operator with the 99th Infantry Division on the Belgian-German border near Losheim. I was then evacuated with frostbite/trenchfeet injuries on December 15,1944 (just one day before the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge) fom an outpost on a wooded ridge opposite Lanzerath, Germany * and remained in an Army General Hospital In England until late February 1945. After my recovery I was reclassified "limited service" and reassigned to Headquarters, US Air Forces in Europe. I served there as a German interpreter and translator for Air Technical Intelligence until my discharge from the army in February 1946.

I then attended and eventually graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI in June 1948. Thereafter I attended the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA and received my Jurisdoctor degree in June 1951. Admitted to the practice of law in Michigan in January 1952 I conducted a civil litigation practice in the metro-Detroit area until my retirement and our move to Florida in November 1998.

On June 30, 1955 I married Shirley, nee Bloom. We have four children: Susan Gail, born 02.06.57; David Wolfe, born 08.29.59, Elisa (Lisa) Jane, born 10.11.61 and Sara Ann, born 06.06.1967. Our oldest, Susan, is married to Jonathan Fleisher, a Toronto, Canada lawyer. She is an internationally renowned artist and illustrator. She and Jon have two children: Rachel, born 12.09.93 and Isabel, born 07.24.96.

Our son David practices law in Cleveland, OH. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Case Western University Law School and specializes in immigration law.From June 2009 until June 2010 he served as president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), I n August 1996 he married Daurielle Horowitz. They have two chilren: Jessica, now 23 and Josh, now 17.

Our daughter Elisa (Lisa) is a graduate of the University of Michigan and earned  a master’s degree in hospitality at Florida International University in Miami. She  is married to Yuval Moed, a native of Amsterdam. Yuval is the older of two sons of Jacques Moed, a holocaust survivor. As a child Jacques was hidden by French nuns after he and his parents were turned back by Swiss border guards while trying to seek refuge in Switzerland. Yuval’s parents were then deported and eventually murdered in Auschwitz. Yuval later grew up in Israel and eventually served in the IDF as a PT boat commander. Initially Lisa and Yuval lived near us in neighboring Boca Raton. They have four children: Tali, born on 31.08.1992; Eitan, born on July 24, 1996; Sophia, born on 14.04.1997 and Zoë, born 10.11.2000. On August 2d 2005 they made Aliyah to Israel and now live in Ra' Anana near Tel Aviv. 

Sara, our youngest, is married to Dr.Mitchell Spinnell of Long Island, NY. Mitch is a Gastroenterologist with a practice in Fort Lee, NJ. Sara is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism. Until December 2006 she served as Director of Publicity of Oxford University Press-New York Office. Sara and Mitch have two children, Jacqueline (Jackie) born December 1st, 2005 and Phoebe, born October 2d, 2007. They live in New York City’s Upper Westside.

Shirley and I enjoy Florida retirement life. I occasionally assist David in his immigration practice with internet legal research. We live in the Cascades, a gated community of 98 homes. Our development contains a clubhouse, a café, two swimming pools and 8 tennis courts. Hopefully we will be blessed with many more years in good health and happiness.

• For some of my World War II experiences, including the story of my survival see Alex Kershaw,'s best selleer, THE LONGEST WINTER, DaCapo Press, New York, NY, published in November 2004. In his book Kershaw describes the training ,combat and Prisoner of War travails of my highly decorated World War II Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the Headquarters Co., 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, up to, during and after the German Von Runstedt Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) leading up to, during and after December 1944 and the miracle of my survival.