Polish Holocaust survivor Miriam Fishkin describes her journey of deportation during the German invasion and how her family found the strength to move forward in the midst of so much grief. 

Faith Mantia, Viking Fusion News Producer

When I first sat down and interviewed Miriam Fishkin I was blown away by her story and surprised no one had written about her before. I knew it was my duty to share her experience and I was excited to start writing. Miriam’s story is mesmerizing and her words were extremely powerful. 2015 marks the 70^th anniversary of world war two and the last survivors are in our midst. The Holocaust is not just a piece of history; it is a cry to remember what can easily happen if we are not careful to push back against unfounded and illogical prejudices.

On June 20, 1941, ten-year-old Miriam Motyl, a Jewish girl from the small Polish town of Pruzhany, was cruelly exiled from her childhood home. Soviet Russian troops, who had occupied Pruzhany when the war began, forced Miriam, her two sisters, Esther and Riva, and their mother to board a train headed for the bleak Siberian wilderness.

Before the war Miriam lived a comfortable life with her twin sister Esther, her older sister Riva and their parents. Her father was a decorated Polish official who at that time was working for the Polish IRS. Her mother was a stay-at-home wife.

Miriam Motyl (Fishkin) with a group of children sponsored by Maison des Enfants in France. Miriam is the girl standing on the right side at the end.    Photo is courtesy of Miriam Motyl Fishkin Family Papers

When the Soviet Union invaded Pruzhany, Miriam’s father became an enemy of the state due to his role in the Polish Army against the Bolsheviks. “Immediately lines were formed after the occupation,” Miriam remembered.

Through an inside connection, Miriam’s father Mr. Motyl, learned that his safety was in jeopardy and that he and his family would be rounded up and sent to Siberia. He went into hiding, hoping to protect his wife and daughters from this fate. Miriam never saw her father again.

At 5am in June 1941, KGB soldiers searched Miriam’s house with rifles and told her family to gather clothes and come with them. Her father had bought them all sheepskin coats the year before which ended up helping them survive in Siberia for two and a half years. Fatefully, the harsh displacing of this young family on that precise day had the astonishing result of transporting them away from certain death. Because in just two short days, the German army occupied Pruzhany, and began a fatal attack against the town’s Jews. The train they were on was the last Russian train to head out before Hitler took over. Incredibly, theirs was also the only train not to get caught in the crossfire.

Shaking her head and taking a shaky breath Miriam clarified that “without the deportation, we would have had no chance of survival because I was a twin and the Germans were experimenting on twins and killing them in horrible ways.”

After two years in desolate Siberia the Motyl family was once again moved to a work camp in the fields of the Caucasus. Caucasus is approximately 120 miles from the shores of the Caspian Sea. Miriam and her family lived in a shack in an agricultural work camp working in corn fields for a year and a half. Her older sister was a good seamstress and would often sew other women in the camp clothes for payments of food. Throughout it all, Miriam remained thankful for being alive even in such harsh conditions.

“If we wouldn’t have been deported we would have ended in ashes. It’s the course of destiny. It was a question of a mere two days. Just two days. As bad as it was, it was our only chance of survival,” Miriam said.

And survive she did. After Caucasus they were moved to West Poland and then to the outskirts of Paris and then finally a ship headed for New York City. She did not speak one word of English but worked in a factory and took classes at night. Miriam never once lost hope. She told me that her mantra that she would often repeat to herself was “Money lost, nothing is lost. Hope lost, everything is lost.”

Miriam was very clear about how important hope was during those dark times, “hope is the essence of life. The Germans tried to kill a nation but we survived. The people will always survive.”

Miriam’s father and extended family did not fare as well. Her grandfather had polio and had to use crutches. When the Germans told him to leave his house he refused because he knew his illness would make him weak in the concentration camp and they would kill him anyway. The German soldiers shot him right there in the street in front of his family. Miriam’s cousin had a baby but when the Germans were shuffling Jews off to the gas chambers, the wife refused to be separated from her child and the soldiers set dogs on them. The woman’s husband and her neighbors were forced to watch as both the infant and mother were killed.  Mr. Motyl was eventually captured and sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered in the gas chambers. At the end of the war Miriam received her father’s last letter.

“It’s literally a goodbye letter” Miriam tearfully whispered as she proceeded to translate to me what her father wrote shortly before his death.

 “My darling children….Do things with honesty and integrity always. You will find a path in your life. If you ever come to this region again, you will see mass graves. I want you to lower your head and remember who lays in these graves; your father, your aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. I am sending you my last regards.” As she finished reading the translation Miriam slowly put down the letter and a silence fell over the room as I tried to take in what I had just heard.

For a long time Miriam refused to read the letter explaining that “I wanted to go forward and not talk about any of the horrors I had seen. But in time I realized that in order to go forward you must leave little things behind and build, but you never ever forget. You never forget. You learn how to survive and go on. I was proud of my father and all he did for us.”

Miriam understood that her father was a man of tremendous integrity and he always told her to give respect in order to receive respect. He played an influential role in her life and she knew she could not keep quiet. “When I read that letter I cry. I feel my father crying out to me to tell the story so this never happens again.”

Miriam’s wise advice to the younger generations is this “The most important thing for younger generations to know, is that it is up to them. To learn from the Holocaust and to realize that hating someone will eventually turn the hate to you. Hate is a psychological thing, it hurts the hater more than the people you hate.”

Miriam ended the interview with one final piece of wisdom, “my advice to you and your generation is one thing: to live life.”