Gary Matzdorff interview and transcript, October 16-17, 1999

Gary (Günter) Matzdorff was born in Berlin on 10 July 1921. He attended the Jewish school in the Grosse Hamburger Strasse after 1933, and joined a rowing club, the Schwarze Fähnlein, and the Naumannianer. He apprenticed in the leather trade. His family sailed to Shanghai from Italy in April 1939 on the "S.S. Victoria." In Shanghai, Matzdorff worked for the Sino-Java import and Export Company until Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the Pacific War. He joined Betar and the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. The Matzdorff family lived within the Hongkew District. Matzdorff worked as a nightwatchman, delivered coal, and worked in a leather goods factory.

After the war, he did more leather work and drove a cab. He got married in 1947. The Matzdorff family came to the U.S. in 1948. He has prospered in the leather goods business since then in Minneapolis, Springfield, Ohio, and Los Angeles.