Malka Baran

Malka Baran-Klin was born in Warsaw Poland on January 30th 1927. Around the age of one she and her family consisting of her father, mother and younger brother moved to Transelhora, Poland. They lived in a small apartment above the print shop her father owned. In September of 1939 Germans began occupying Transelhora. At first it was small changes, closing of schools and people disappearing. They became accustomed to seeing Germans around, everyone kept saying it would get better. Transelhora began the war with 42,000 Jews, by the end there was 2,000. In 1941 two ghettos was erected. Malka and her family lived in the larger of the two. 1942 came and went, life and living conditions was deplorable. 1943, SS soldiers busted into homes throughout the ghetto organizing by fives and marching all to selection. Due to the fact there was only four of them the girl that worked for Malka’s father was their fifth. At selection, Malka’s mother and the girl was sent to the right. Malka her father and brother was sent to the left. It was to be the last time she ever saw her mother again. Malka her father and brother was sent to a labor camp outside of Transelhora. She worked in an old metal factory sorting good anti-aircraft ammunition from bad. She lived in an all-female barrack that housed a couple of hundred women. She would see her family on occasion and one day they didn’t return she later found out they was shot in the back. Malka has tremendous memory loss to this day and explains it to herself that she was “in shock, the inner part of me sort of went to sleep, I existed.” One day the women heard a small child crying in the barrack. At first thought they was crazy no children that small was still alive! Later found out his mother smuggled him in. The women hid him under the floor during the day. Malka stated that singing to him and loving him was what helped her get through it. In January 1945 liberation happened. During her stay Malka contacted a horrible skin disease and typhoid. She almost died. Two quotes I found amazing with everything Malka lived thru is….. “Hate and prodigious are extremely dangerous.” And “Do not despair when something terrible happens because there is always change.”