Malka Baran (Formally Klin was last name)
Born in Warsaw, Poland, on January 30, 1927. This woman was included in a family of four that had a one bedroom apartment home, with her father's occupation as a man running a print shop in the same building as their home. Malka had a happy childhood; friends, interests in studies, was a good student, celebrations were traditional and welcoming, and finding enjoyment in walking places with friends took up her childhood. Malka loved reading books in her home, playing with children outside, walking with her father to the city on Saturdays and later working in the shop he had when she was older, as well as free passes into the movies because her father could print them. Her home was later a part of the ghetto that was set up in Warsaw, though she cannot recall how large of an area her home area was: "That I cannot tell you. I was very young and I'm very ignorant in areas and people." Malka has a very private connection with God, though her parents did not teach her: "I put my arm on my heart and I said goodnight to him and thank you for my brother and my parents..." Her religion and her families religion was very relaxed, not too strict in Judaism. Later, she admits that her younger brother (two years younger) and her parents were murdered. Sweet Malka cannot recall what the ghetto looks like, though she can remember being assigned to her barracks and the "concentration camp" they called it, though it was a labor camp. This camp contained no gas chambers, but only killing by shootings. In her barrack, Malak explained "bunks" of three layers, with hers being located on the bottom. This woman loved children and when a young child was found and hidden in her barrack, she made sure he was taken care of and maintained some sense of enjoyment. This little boy ended up being saved when this barrack and others were liberated.
"Don't you dare to fall asleep ... I called it the tiny flame."
"I start crying when I talk about it ... It was so -- you must understand that for five-four years we didn't hear a human kindness or experience a human kindness, so when the first occurrence when somebody was kind to us at the same time it could be a disaster -- meant so much..."
Helen Greenbaum
Helen grew up in a very comfortable home with her parents and four other siblings (one additional sibling that passed which Helen never met). Her father worked in a soft leather shop in the same building as her home which provided meals for every occasion and day, as well as a "spoiled" sort of lifestyle. This woman went to an all girls school, mainly Jewish children. Helen lost her father as she and the rest of her family were hiding in a basement area of this mans' home, where her father refused to stay locked up in the basement. With him refusing to do so, the "Nazis" (she does not call them Germans because she will not blame an entire group over a situation that not all Germans participated in) ripped the door off of it hinges and took her father. Her mother was later taken (leaving Helen to be alone and abandoned) when the Nazis were grouping the Jews, taking what they had from them; only to be reunited with her brother, brother in law and sister, when they had to go to the camps. While her brother in law and brother were looking for hiding places, the girls were put on trucks and sent into ghettos. Her youngest brother found out about the trucks and began to run towards the truck -- That is the last time Helen saw him. She later finds out that her brother was shot on the street for doing so. While put into the camps, Helen later obtained a job working on machines that produced bullet cases (shells, I'm sure). January 16, 1945.. the only day she remembers is when she was taken to another location. She began to see many gas chambers selections and killings. She got scurvy and believe it or not, the moldy food that the "Nazis" gave her actually saved her!! Mold make penicillin, which treated her illness! Hah, take that, Nazis.
"You know what scurvy is? ... They didn't even know they were taking care of me! Because we were getting food with mold. Make sense? Mold makes penicillin."
"...And we went out to greet the American soldiers and we dropped to our knees and we kissed their boots..."
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