Survivor Testimony Malka Baran

Katie Nass

Mr. Neuberger

English Comp 101- 135

11 October 2012

Survivor Testimony  

Malka Baran

Malka was born in Warsaw Poland on January 30, 1927.  At the time of the story she was 70 years old.  She came from a lower middle class family in a Jewish neighborhood which later became part of the ghetto.   Her father was a printer, but everything, even his equipment was taken way.  Malka was sent to work with other young girls cleaning windows in the ghetto.  Those who worked got coupons for food. Life was never the same again.  Food was restricted, there were no good clothes, the children couldn’t play outside and the windows were barred.  Malka was 13 or 14 when it started to get bad. 

In 1943, Malka’s parents woke her and her brother very early and made them dress in many layers.  SS solders were lined up in the street.  They were ordered to get out and forced in to the street with their neighbors.   They never saw their home after that.  They were divided and Malka was taken to a big inter court of a larger metal factory.  Jewish boys tried to fight the SS soldiers and were executed.  Malka remembers babies being thrown against the wall, killing them.  She was put to work again but blocked memories of this time.  She never saw her mother and father again.

The memory block lasted until the concentration camp.  She was the concentration camps until January 1945.   She was 15 when she was taken to the camps.  She was not taken to the death camps, but to the labor camps.

She sold the chain from a gift from her parents for bread.  She was shocked and lost memories.  She suffered from disease, typhoid and rashes.  The food was almost non-existent and they were wasting away.  Conditions were unthinkable.

            A child was discovered in the camp.  This wasn’t allowed so no one could claim the child but Malka played with the child.  She felt that this child helped her survive.

After 3 ½ years, liberation came but they survivors were so conditioned that they didn’t even leave the camps even when the Germans were gone.  Once they realized they could leave, they left and hid.  Malka said that when she was coming out of the camp, it was the first time she thought of her parents and cried.  She was a survivor, but they were gone.  

Eventually they got a job and were able to regain their health.  They were offered a chance to go back to school but didn’t continue because they weren’t comfortable.

She met a soldier who wanted her to move with him and have a family.  She didn’t have any family left.  The soldiers sent for her and an older woman went with her.  They traveled through Germany together but were afraid because they were alone with Russian soldiers.  But the soldiers took good care of them and it was an overwhelming experience because they had had no kindness.  They worked with the Russians and “learned to live again”.

Later, they couldn’t stay with the Russians because they were suspected to be spies because they weren’t Russians.  They were sent, by train, to Austria, to a displaced person camp.  She was a teacher of children in the displaced person camp.  The children “brought her back”.

In 1948, she moved to Israel with a woman who had come to the displaced person camp to be a teacher and arrange schools.  She got to Israel illegally traveling by any means possible, train, walking and finally a freight boat.  She stayed with cousins until eventually she was accepted to learn to teach.  She was in a seminary but lived with someone and worked for them while she was studying.

She met her husband while in the displaced person camp.  He stayed in Austria even after she went to Israel.  He moved to America and for 6 years they wrote letters to each other.  Malka was 25 when she married but she was still in Israel.  It took 10 months to get clearance for her to come to America.  They have raised 2 daughters, who were born in New York.  Malka went back to school and received her teaching degrees.

Malka gave the testimony to show history, but also to show that there’s always opportunity to change, even when you’ve been through terrible things.  There’s always a way to come back, a rebirth.  Hate and prejudice are extremely dangerous and makes people act.  It’s important to get rid of it.  She believes that she is more understanding and compassionate as a result of her experience.

 

 

Quotes

When speaking about nights in the bunker she said,  “next to me was two sisters one was a lunatic and when the moon was out I rember vividly she would get up from her bunk she walked she resited history in polish polish history like a profester sometimes she would walk out and back.”  

 

There was an officer in the camp that Malka described.  “We called him the American he happened to be show himself to be a human being.  When he called someone to his office under the pretext that he would punish…. under the cover he gave them sandwiches.”