Praizer (Praiser) Mordka Yakovlevich (30 October 1904, Będzin, Poland) — hairdresser.

At the age of 14 Mordka Praizer was apprenticed to a barber and in 1918–38 worked as a hairdresser in the barber shops of Hertzberg (1918–21, Będzin), Leitner (1921–22, Będzin), Fainman (1922–24, Będzin), Szyniawski (1924–30, Działoszyce), Beigelman (1930–31, Będzin), Brechner (1931–33, Sosnowiec), Zingerman (1933–34, Sosnowiec), and Wekselman (1934–38, Będzin). In 1925–27 he served in the Polish Army. In 1938–39 he was a worker at the zinc industry plant “Polskie Zakłady” in Będzin.

After the German occupation of Poland, Mordka Praizer moved to Lithuania. In 1939–41 he worked as a hairdresser in Isaev’s workshop in Vilnius. In 1941–45 he was imprisoned in German concentration camps. In April 1945 he was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp and, after passing through Soviet citizens’ transit points in Fatenpost, via Lipenburg, Schwegine and Neubrandenburg, was assigned to military unit 61403 in Belkow (Germany), where he worked as a hairdresser until 1946.

In 1946, via the transit point at Wangers, together with his wife Rakhil Praizer (Arsh) (1912, Daugavpils), he was sent to Daugavpils. In 1946–48 he worked as a hairdresser in the Daugavpils special trade organisation, in 1948–51 in the Daugavpils military trade organisation, and from 1951 as a hairdresser in the Municipal Services Trust of Daugavpils. His son Yakov was born in 1949 and his son Boris in 1952. In 1952 he received Soviet citizenship. In 1958 he obtained permission to repatriate to Poland.

Praizer’s parents, younger brother and elder sister — Yakov Praizer (1884, Będzin – 1941, Będzin), Zislya Praizer (née Wald) (1882, Będzin – 1941), Israel Praizer (1927, Będzin – 1941), and Hana-Gitlya Praizer (1911, Będzin – 1941) — were murdered in the Holocaust in Poland. His brother Shlema Praizer (1914, Będzin – 1928, Będzin) died before the Second World War. His sister Yadya Praizer (1920, Będzin) lived and worked in Poland in the 1950s.

Family:

Rakhil Praizer (née Arsh) (1912, Daugavpils) — wife
Yakov Praizer (1949, Daugavpils) — son
Boris Praizer (1952, Daugavpils) — son
Yakov Praizer (1884, Będzin, Poland – 1941, Będzin, Poland) — father
Zislya Praizer (née Wald) (1882, Będzin, Poland – 1941, Poland) — mother
Israel Praizer (1927, Będzin, Poland – 1941, Poland) — brother
Shlema Praizer (1914, Będzin, Poland – 1928, Będzin, Poland) — brother
Hana-Gitlya Praizer (1911, Będzin, Poland – 1941, Będzin, Poland) — sister
Yadya Praizer (1920, Będzin, Poland) — sister