The 1950s and earlier

The exact birth date of Jack Tramiel is not known. Jack Tramiel's sworn testimony to the Commission Appointed to inquire into the Failure of Atlantic Acceptance Corporation on November 30, 1966 lists his birthday as December 13, 1927 in the city of Lodz, Poland. According to an interview with his son Leonard Tramiel in the documentary movie "The Commodore Story", Jack Tramiel lied about his birth date such that he could meet the minimum age requirements to emigrate to the United States after his time in a German concentration camp. This article will not attempt to authenticate Jack Tramiel's birth date, but will assert that it may be December 13, 1927, September 13, 1927 or December 13, 1928. Other official sources indicate that his name was Kaufmann Idek Tramiel or Tramielski. In this same sworn testimony, Jack Tramiel claims to have been in a concentration camp from 1939 - 1945 and, on his application for a United States visa, that he lived in the ghetto at Lodz until June 1944, thereafter being confined in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

Jack Tramiel appears to have entered the United States in 1947 and to have been enlisted in the United States Army from 1948 - 1950 where he was a cook, and from 1951 - 1952 where he repaired typewriters.

Between 1950 and 1951, and for some time in 1952, Jack Tramiel worked for Ace Typewriter Repair Company in the city of New York, USA. From 1952 - 1954 he drove a taxi cab in New York.

Manfred Kapp