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.

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