20 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

OUR COMMUNITY

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 commem-
orating 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 liber-
ation 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 cele-
brated two days earlier this year 
because of Shabbat. 
For the holiday, the Jewish 
News celebrates three remark-
able 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, 

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 fami-
ly were saved by a German offi-
cer 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 posi-
tion 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 cardiol-
ogist. Malinowski, now retired, 
continues to work with the 
Holocaust Memorial Center to 
educate people about his expe-
riences.

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 

Honor Metro Detroit survivors on June 24, 
the inaugural Holocaust Survivors’ Day.

 A Third Day of 
R
emembrance

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PORTRAITS OF HONOR. 

Edward 
Malinowski

Henry 
Wormser

Barbara 
Cohen

