Miriam Kleinman was born in 1926 in the small town of Lubien, Poland. She was 13 when the Germans invaded and soon lost track of her sister, brother and father. Her mother perished in the Warsaw Ghetto.
After surviving several labor and concentration camps, she ended up fleeing Bergen-Belsen at the war’s end to a nearby farm with her girlfriends. The girls ended up living at the farm post-war where she met her husband, also a survivor. They married in a Landsberg DP camp, where their first child was born. They emigrated to New York, infant son in tow, penniless, homeless without any knowledge of English.
HIAS took them in and placed them on the Lower East Side, where Miriam’s husband took any job he could. Ultimately, through determination and resilience, they excelled in building a business and raised a family: two sons and a daughter. They were very active in Young Israel and Jewish philanthropy in the Bronx, where they built a home.
After her husband died, Miriam, now very feeble, died in Daughters of Israel in NJ on December 7, 2020. She was 92 and a most giving, loving, innocent woman. At the time of her death, she had six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She lived her life through her daughter. Despite the horrific details of her adolescence, she never lost faith in the inherent goodness of people and lived her life full of wonder and smiles. To her, every day and every person, was a precious gift.