Saluting Connecticut’s Veterans
Three Jewish veterans among those to be honored at State Capitol
Three members of the Greater Hartford Jewish community are among the veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces who will be honored on Thursday, Nov. 8, 1 p.m., when Connecticut celebrates the state’s first Immigrant Veterans Recognition Day at the State Capitol. Those being honored are all immigrants to the U.S. who served in the Armed Forces from World War II through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Veterans Recognition Day is co-sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of State, the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut (JFACT), the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, the Polish American Foundation, and the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University.
ROMAN LUFTGLAS | Born in 1925 in the Szczakowa district of Poland, Roman Luftglas was deported with his family to Auschwitz when the Nazis invaded in 1939, the last time he would see his parents and brother. After the war, while living in a Displaced Persons camp in the U.S. zone of Germany, Luftglas worked as a mechanic, and then as a film projectionist for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). He entered ORT, the Jewish education and vocational training organization, training as a welder and sheet-metal mechanic, and worked in an optical firm that manufactured glasses, optical-testing equipment and large-format cameras.
Luftglas met JDC director, Dr. Samuel Haber, who found him a sponsor in Columbia, S.C. Luftglas immigrated there in May 1949, picking up a job as a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealership two days after his arrival.
He was inducted into the U.S. military in 1951, serving as a projectionist first stateside, then in Hokkaido, Japan, before being shipped to Korea with the 45th Infantry as a rifleman and radioman. He was discharged in 1952, invited to Hartford by a friend with whom he had been liberated.
He met his future wife, Goldie, that year, and the couple married the following year and settled in Hartford. He worked as a welder in an electronics shop in Hartford and then as a salesman of photographic equipment for Economy Sales, before opening the Camera Bar in East Hartford in 1956. The Luftglases moved to West Hartford in 1970, where they raised their three daughters.
As a token of respect, the Eastman Kodak Company donated $10,000 in Luftglas’s name to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Retired for 15 years, Luftglas speaks about his wartime experiences in schools and prisons throughout the state, and trains teachers in Holocaust education.
“In retrospect, I am proud to have served in the army for the simple reason that I could somehow repay the U.S. for letting me in and starting a new life,” Luftglas says. “I’m grateful and whatever I did, it was to the best of my ability because I was proud to be part of the Armed Forces.”
Felix Bronner
DR. FELIX BRONNER | Born in Vienna in 1921, Felix Bronner moved to Berlin in 1929 with his family. In 1937, he joined relatives in Washington, D.C., where he finished high school, then earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley’s Davis campus. His parents narrowly escaped the Nazis and arrived in the U.S. in February 1941 via Portugal.
Bronner wanted to study medical science and entered the U.S. Army in 1942. He trained and served in various positions, from Infantry to medical technician to German-language instructor. He achieved the final rank of Buck Sergeant, discharged in 1946.
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