14 | OCTOBER 27 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

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ON THE COVER

EDITH (LONDON) 
KOZLOWSKI
Jay Kozlowski got the ball rolling for 
his mother Edith’s birthday several 
months in advance when he invited 
family, friends, acquaintances — really, 
any friendly soul — to send a con-
gratulatory card to her at his address. 
As he wrote his fellow members of 
CHAIM, a local organization for chil-
dren of Holocaust survivors: “One of 
the simple pleasures she 
enjoys is receiving cards 
on holidays and special 
occasions. She particu-
larly loves getting birth-
day greetings!” 
Her desire was ful-
filled. Even since Edith’s 
birthday party, held Sept. 
24 at Bacco Ristorante 
in Southfield, birthday 
cards are arriving. Ruth 
Kozlowski and her sib-
lings estimate that more 
than 1,000 cards have 
come for their mother 
from near and far — even postmarked 
from Europe and Australia. 
“A lot saw her story on TV 
(WXYZ),” said Ruth, the main care-
giver for her mother in Edith’s West 

Bloomfield home. “Some schools 
found out about the birthday and sent 
cards. People are writing, ‘I don’t know 
you but heard how you are turning 
100.’” 
Given the first name of Itka, 
Kozlowski was one of four daugh-
ters born to grocery store owners 
Dvora (Frajdenrajch) and Icek (Isaac) 
London. Home for them, and also 
the family of her future husband, was 
Radom, Poland. After the 
Nazis began occupying 
the city on Sept. 9, 1939, 
Jewish residents, includ-
ing Itka’s parents and 
grandparents, met a hor-
rific end at the Treblinka 
extermination camp in 
Poland. 
Looking back, Edith 
said, “I was lucky in one 
respect” — she and her 
two surviving younger 
sisters remained together 
throughout the war. They 
were slave laborers at 
Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and some 
smaller camps before their liberation 
by the Russian army. By chance, after 
the war, Edith’s best friend Binka 
Kurant was in Stuttgart, Germany, 

up on a bicycle and collected her at a 
neighbor’s house,” Parker was told. 
They married a few months later in 
1945. Visas to the United States came 
through while they were living with their 
first-born child, Alfred, in Stuttgart, 
Germany. Viola’s uncle in Detroit, Joe 
Greenberger, sponsored them. The 
Kleins arrived on April 22, 1947, and 
went on to have three more children, 
seven grandchildren and three great-
grandchildren. 
Parker said Viola always enjoyed 
doing needlepoint, making bracelets 
and playing bridge. Her parents used to 
work out every day at their health club, 
where Viola did yoga and learned to 
swim. They were members of the former 
Congregation Beth Achim in Southfield. 
Gerson died on Sept. 16, 2007.
“My extremely outgoing mother always 
had hundreds of friends,” Parker said. 
Viola was active in the Hungarian Club 
and the Survivors’ social organization, 
Shaarit HaPlaytah and its bowling league.
“She’s also a wonderful baker and cook, 
and liked to entertain. Anyone who didn’t 
have a place to be on Shabbat or holidays, 
even on Dec. 25, they had a place to go.
“My mother is never depressed and 
always upbeat,” Parker added. “She’s 
always grateful to breathe and has a 
big smile on her face. She is a very easy 
mother. And she made us feel like we 
were wonderful human beings.” 

The four Klein children and their parents, 
Gerson and Viola. Al, born in Germany, 
is 19 years older than the youngest child, 
Jeff, in front of him.

continued on page 16

Edith Kozlowski 
and her great-
granddaughter 
Sloane

Edith and Marvin 
Kozlowski on their 
wedding day.

