Miriam Winter

Miriam Winter (F / Poland, 1933-2014), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Warsaw Ghetto> <Hidden Children>
• MEMOIRS : Trains (1997)

Biography

Miriam Winter was born in Lodz, Poland in 1933. At the beginning of the war her family fled to Warsaw; in summer 1941 they left the ghetto and went to Ozarow. In November 1941 Winter's parents gave her to a Jewish woman who lived with false documents on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw; she passed the child on to Maria (Maryla) Oraczowa, a Polish woman whom they met on a train. Her parents and brother perished in the Holocaust. She remained with Maryla and her family, even though she was treated like a servant. Finally, she went away to school, married, and in 1969 emigrated to the USA.

Book : Trains (1997)

• Trains: A Memoir of a Hidden Childhood During and After World War 2 (Jackson, MI: Kelton Press, 1997).

"Trains is the moving account of a hidden child, a lonely girl who survived the Holocaust and escaped the Nazis in World War II Poland by living among strangers and pretending to be a Catholic girl, and who continued to hide her identity, heritage, and history in Communist Poland for two decades after the war ended. Trains is also the inspiring story of a courageous woman finding, facing, and telling the truth about her extraordinary life ... Memoirs of a Jew born in Lodz in 1933. At the beginning of the war her family fled to Warsaw; in summer 1941 they left the ghetto and went to Ozarow. In November 1941 Winter's parents gave her to a Jewish woman who lived with false documents on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw; she passed the child on to Maria (Maryla) Oraczowa, a Polish woman whom they met on a train. Maryla took her to her home in Lvov, but Winter was soon recognized as a Jew and Maryla arranged other hiding places. Winter's life in hiding was a painful process of changing identity; she became a sincere Catholic in 1943 and an agnostic after the war. She remained with Maryla and her family, even though she was treated like a servant. Finally, she went away to school, married, and in 1969 emigrated to the USA. Her parents and brother perished in the Holocaust."--Publisher description.