Holocaust Survivor Visits West Orange School

A Holocaust survivor and West Orange Township resident visited a local middle school to provide her story of survival with students last week.

Fran “Fay” Malkin, now 76, visited Roosevelt Middle School on May 13 to share an oral history of her experiences as a child whose family was hidden in a hayloft in Sokal, Poland, above a pigsty for 20 months, according to officials from West Orange Public Schools. Malkin was four years old when Polish Catholics Francisca Halamajowa and her daughter Helan Liniewyska hid 16 Jewish neighbors, including Malkin and her family, in a hayloft, school district officials said.

Prior to the onset of World War II, Sokal had approximately 6,000 Jewish residents. By the conclusion of the war, 33 survived, half of which were saved by Halamajowa, school district officials said. In 2011, Halamajowa posthumously received the “Courage to Care Award” from the Anti-Defamation League for her efforts during the war.

Malkin’s father was among the first victims of Sokal who were rounded up in 1941 along with other notable Jewish residents between the ages of 14 and 60. The Jewish residents were taken outside of the town and shot after being forced to dig their own graves, school district officials said. Many others were transported to Belzec extermination camp.

While hiding in the hayloft, Malkin almost lost her life, as well. At one point during Malkin was unable to stop crying and her family tried to poison her so they and the rest of the Jewish residents would not be discovered. Malkin, however, survived and adjusted to life in the hayloft until Poland was liberated by Allied Forces on July 19, 1944, the release from the school district said.

“What I felt throughout my childhood was that there was no normalcy,” Malkin said. An American relative discovered her family in a refugee camp following the war, who sponsored their move to America. Her family eventually settled in Newark.

“After the war, no one talked about it,” Malkin added. She did not speak of her experiences before filming a 2009 documentary, entitled “No. 4 Street of Our Lady”.

“Talk to your parents and grandparents,” Malkin said to the students. “Everyone has a story to tell.”

“Being a victim is the worst thing you can do,” she added. “No matter what you go through you have to prevail…you have to go on with your life. You can’t let them win.”

(Photos courtesy of West Orange Public Schools)