16 | OCTOBER 27 • 2022
when a Radom landsman, Max Kozlowski,
approached her while selling his wares in
the city. He and his son Marvin, survivors
of several concentration camps, lived an
hour away in Wertheim am Mein. Max
asked Binka if anyone they knew from
Radom had survived. She said the London
sisters, distant cousins to the Kozlowskis,
were staying in a temporary settlement
outside Bergen-Belsen. Marvin was sent
to bring the girls back to their apartment;
Max bought the sisters food and clothing.
The sisters arrived in Detroit in 1947.
Their sponsors were Fanny (husband Louis)
Rosenberg and Joshua Joyrich, siblings of
their mother, Dvora London. Marvin and
Edith were already interested in each other,
but it wasn’t until 1949 that the young man
and his father obtained U.S. visas and set-
tled in the Motor City.
Married on Jan. 15, 1950, Edith and
Marvin had three children. Their legacy
today includes six grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. With their accents and
“Old World” ways, Jay acknowledged that
his parents were “different from the parents
of my friends, but they were incredible and
literally lived their lives for us.
”
The Kozlowskis were members of the
former Congregation B’nai Israel in Pontiac.
Edith listens today to the services of B’nai
Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield via
Zoom, “not able to get out much these days
given her frailties and the constraints of
COVID,
” Jay said.
The call for birthday cards was also
meant to brighten Edith’s spirits. Marvin
passed away in 2020 at age 100.
“Such a sweetheart,
” she said of Marvin.
“Half of me is gone since he’s been gone,
two years on Oct. 8.
”
Ruth said her parents had “an incredi-
ble marriage. They were best friends and
soulmates.”
Relationships are everything to Edith.
“
About my family, I can’t say enough,
” she
said. “How fortunate I am to have the most
loving, warm family. I don’t know how
much more they could do. They’re very
close to me.
”
Added Jay, “My mom raised us in a lov-
ing and nurturing environment.
”
He recalled how she was “always home
when we returned from school to help with
homework, prepare dinner and shower
us with love and attention.
” She later was
Marvin’s helper and partner in his small
clothing and tailor shop.
“Edith’s purpose in life is giving and being
kind, doing what she can to help others,
”
Ruth said. Edith “continues to love knitting
and has knit at least one scarf for almost
everybody she knows well,
” Jay said.
Known as a great cook, Edith especially
loves baking. “She would often bake up to
30 honey cakes around Rosh Hashanah to
help friends and family usher in a sweet
year,
” Jay said. About five years ago, her
“adopted” daughter Cheryl Christmas, a
volunteer at the Holocaust Center, compiled
Edith’s favorite recipes for a cookbook.
Asked for any words of wisdom, Edith
replied, “Be good and help others, then
you’ll feel much better. Love one another
regardless of religion.
” And her reaction to
turning 100? “
A miracle!”
Full biographies for Viola Klein and
Edith Kozlowski and other survivors
can be found in the Portraits of
Honor database (portraitsofhonor.
org). Charles Silow started POH in
1999, and it’s maintained by CHAIM
at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in
Farmington Hills. The ongoing project
includes, on the museum’s main floor, a
gallery of framed photos showing living
or now deceased Holocaust survivors
based in Michigan. Contact CHAIM at
csilow@jslmi.org to submit the photo
and biography of anyone who could
be part of the collection.
CLOCKWISE
FROM LEFT: Edith
celebrates her
100th birthday with
family and friends.
Edith’s recipes were
compiled in a book.
Edith shows the
tattoo she received
at the Nazi death
camp Auschwitz.
continued from page 14