Biographical essay by Miriam Zaidman Borowsky, 2014

Miriam Zaidman Borowsky Tel Aviv, Palestine, 1938 I was born in Tel Aviv, Israel (Palestine) on March 13, 1937. My parents left Poland before I was born. First they moved from Warsaw to the north of France. My father had his mother and sister in Palestine so he took his wife and son there. My mother, however, wanted to return to France so in 1938 they went back to Europe. My father, Oscar (Jewish name Itzhak) had been a member of the Haganah (Jewish underground army) in Palestine and was a member of the French army. He had been shot by the Nazis and the bullet went through his wallet and papers and into his chest but did not hit his lungs. Papers in my father?s wallet helped stop the bullet. Despite his wound he carried his lieutenant, who was also wounded, to the hospital and for that act he was awarded the French Medal of Honor. As a result of his injury he was discharged from the service and later we would receive benefits as a disabled veteran. After my father was discharged the family moved to the south of France where it was supposed to be safer for Jews. Oscar began to work for the resistance. Some members of the French underground resistance movement, the Maquis. His regular job was to harvest wood for furniture. When the Nazis came to collect the Jews, the French police offered to let him escape and told him to cross the border into Spain. They promised to tell the Nazis they could not find him. My family in 1940 in France: father Oscar, mother Jeane, brother George and myself. My father would not leave his wife and children behind so he surrendered himself. He, and my maternal uncle Naftali Sorman, turned themselves in. The two men were sent to a work camp near Marseille. My father sent us cards and letters. One card said he was going to be sent to the Drancy internment camp. That was the last contact our family had. From Drancy the men were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were murdered. They left on one of the last transports to Poland, convoy #73, in the spring of 1944. M My uncle?s family in 1940 in France: Naftali, son Maurice, wife Hela and daughter Miriam Sorman. The Klarsfeld?s book, about the deportations of the Jews from France, lists my father?s name. During this time my 14 year old brother, George, was sent to a farm for safety but the farmer?s son was mentally challenged and George did not feel safe. He came back to us in the town Boulogne-sur-Gesse. Boulogne-sur-Gesse, France Some of the people in the town knew they were Jews in hiding but nobody gave us away. We did not wear a Star of David. There were five Jewish families hiding in this town. One of the Jews was hiding as a nun. My family survived by living off the remnants of our pre-war textile business. My mother, Jeane, claimed to be from Alsace and that was why she spoke with an accent and did not sound like a native from that area of France. I could not go to kindergarten because I was Jewish. I was very young but I remember the Nazis coming to our home looking for men. Whenever the Nazis came near my mother gave me paper and scissors knowing I would become so engrossed in making cut-outs that I would be quietly occupied. I was too busy to speak or get involved. My mother told my brother to act like the son of the farmer ? the boy who was mentally challenged. This helped because the Nazis ignored him and didn?t take him away. I had been very close to my father and missed him terribly. I asked questions about where he was but I didn?t get answers for a long time. We knew the war was over when the church bells rang. I went to the train station to wait for my father. It wasn?t until my mother began seeing another man that I realized my father was not coming back anymore. My mother?s relationship with this man caused a breach in the family. Two years after the war was over I went to live in an OSE (OEuvre de secours aux enfants) home in Moissac in Tarn & Garonne. Purim party at the OSE home. I am the third from the right in the back row. There were two such homes at the time and I went to the one for younger children, while George went to the one for older children. In 1948 George went to fight for the new State of Israel. My brother and I in happier days: Paris 1974 Neither my brother nor I liked my mother?s second husband. I did not want to live with my mother and in 1952 went to Israel and lived on Kibbutz Kvutzat Yavne It was a religious kibbutz and the people were very nice. I then went to Jerusalem to study nursing and later went to the army. I was trained as a medic. My future mother-in-law was a nurse at the hospital where I trained and that is how I met my husband. We came to the US in 1965 so my husband could study cinematography. I worked as a nurse. We lived in New York and I loved it there. We moved to Los Angeles and then, for a while, back to Israel. Our children didn?t like Israel so we came back to Los Angeles. Customers from Nevada encouraged my husband to open up a business in Las Vegas and we moved here.