Together with his aunt and uncle he moved to Baltimore, Maryland on January 29 and immediately sought work as a handyman, working in textiles, and traveling around the Mid-Atlantic. He moved into his own apartment with his friend Freddie, and met his wife Florine (née Cohen) in November 1951; they married in July 1952. Bretholz had his first child, Myron, in 1955 and later had two daughters, named Denise and Edie. He received death notifications of his two sisters and mother in 1962, who had been deported to Auschwitz in April 1942, after which he had not heard from them. It was at this point he began to speak publicly about his experiences during the war.