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