A Third Day of
Remembrance
PORTRAITS OF HONOR.
OUR COMMUNITY
Honor Metro Detroit survivors on June 24, the inaugural Holocaust Survivors’ Day. ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
J
ewish leaders around the world have rallied in support of a third day of Holocaust remembrance, which helped create the inaugural Holocaust Survivor Day. This day of remembrance commemorating the Jews who survived the horrors of the Nazi regime will be celebrated for the first time on Thursday, June 24. Though the day is brand new, the goal is to spark a worldwide annual event that keeps the legacies of the last generation of survivors in mind. Other days of remembrance include International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 (the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz) and Yom HaShoah (the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising) on 27 Nisan, which occurs during April or early May. The new Holocaust Survivor Day honors Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, whose birthday falls on June 26. It will be celebrated two days earlier this year because of Shabbat. For the holiday, the Jewish News celebrates three remarkable individuals who survived the Holocaust and now reside in Metro Detroit, educating young generations in the hopes of stopping these atrocities from happening again. Here are their stories,
20
|
JUNE 24 • 2021
with the help of testimonials gathered by the Holocaust Memorial Center: in Farmington Hills. EDWARD MALINOWSKI Born Edward Mersyk in Warsaw, Poland, in 1939, Malinowski grew up in the Polish capital on a street that became part of the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1943, while his parents were away at work, Malinowski, who was hiding in the loft of his apartment building with his grandfather, was discovered by two German soldiers. They were taken from their home to Umschlagplatz, a holding area in the ghetto notorious for being a place where Jews were deported to Treblinka. Discovering his son and father were gone, Malinowski’s father bribed Jewish officers to let his son go, pretending he had typhus and was in need of medical care. While Malinowski was released, he never saw his grandfather again. He then remembers riding in the bottom of a carriage stuffed between boxes of food. His father had smuggled the family out of the Warsaw Ghetto. They hid in different apartments throughout Warsaw, going from one place to another. While attempting to work
with the Polish resistance, Edward’s father was tricked and sent directly to the Gestapo. He never returned. During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Malinowski and his family were saved by a German officer who spared their lives and stopped another officer from killing them. They spent the remainder of the war traveling under false papers throughout Poland until the country was liberated. Following the war, Malinowski returned to Warsaw and attended medical school. After being stripped of his position in 1968 following a revolt of Polish intellectualists that the Polish government blamed on Jews, Malinowski emigrated to Detroit in 1969. He worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital for many years as a well-known cardiologist. Malinowski, now retired, continues to work with the Holocaust Memorial Center to educate people about his experiences. BARBARA COHEN Born Basha Schechter in Bukaczowce, Poland, (now part of Ukraine) in 1941, Cohen was an only child. Because Poland was in the midst of World War II at the time of her birth, Cohen and her family went into hiding, going from one place to
Edward Malinowski
Barbara Cohen
Henry Wormser
