Len's cousin

Mannes (Morris) Berliner was Len's cousin, the oldest son of his father's sister Esther Hinda and Jacob Berliner. He was born in Myszyniec, (pronounced "Mishinietz") Poland, and he was 16 years old when the Germans invaded, starting World War II.

The family barely escaped the Nazis, and were moved to Siberia by the Russians. Mannes became a lumberjack in Siberia, and later a cowboy in Kazakhstan. After the war, he married Sonia Slutsky, whom he met in a dispaced persons camp. They moved to Winnipeg, Canada, where some of her relatives lived. He owned a grocery store until his retirement in 1988. Mannes and Sonia had two daughters.

In 1988, Len interviewed Mannes in Winnipeg and his brothers Joe and Louis in New York.