Living History

Malka Neuman was just three years old when the Nazis invaded her hometown of Pultusk, Poland. In response, Malka’s mother, Sara, fled with her two daughters to Warsaw, about 30 miles away, to stay with Malka’s aunt, who was a gynecologist.

“But when we got to her house,” Malka recalls, “she said to my mother, ‘Sara, take your children and run – run wherever you can run, because we are going to be next.’”

Since Sara spoke fluent Russian, she decided the best thing to do was escape to Russia. She took her daughters to the train station, and the three of them snuck on a train that was transporting cows and horses. When they woke up the next morning, they were in Siberia, where they would spend the next five years in a refugee camp.

“My mother never stopped talking to us about it, what we went through,” says Malka, now 83. “It was a terrible place. We had hardly any food. We had to wait a week to take a bath. My mother just prayed to God that the war should be over and we would be alive and we would find my father [who was in the Polish army].”

Malka’s parents and sister would survive the war, but her aunt was not so lucky. The Nazis tortured her and made her perform experiments on women, and then they killed her and her daughter.

When Malka’s family was released in 1944, they ended up in a small town in Kazakhstan. They lived in a little farmhouse, and Malka’s mother and sister made money by selling sewing and dye supplies at a local flea market.

“They did very well; they made money,” Malka says. “My mother could buy potatoes and make potato soup. We were not hungry anymore.”

About a year after the war ended, Malka’s family found out that her father was alive and in a Russian prison. When the prisoners were eventually released, the family was reunited in Poland. They moved to Israel in 1947.

In 1953, at age 17, Malka married Aron Kornicki. Daughter Joan was born in Israel the following year, and they moved to Flushing, Queens, in 1958, where Malka and Aron owned and operated a bakery. Son Marvin was born two years later. The Kornickis moved to Miami Beach in 1970, and Malka – who was widowed at age 48 – moved to Oakmonte Village three years ago at the encouragement of Joan, who lives nearby in Winter Park.

Joan, who teaches a monthly Yiddish class at Oakmonte Village, says she didn’t know much about her mother’s story until she was  a teenager.

“My mother didn’t talk about what she went through,” Joan says. “Her only concern was that we get an education and have a happy life. I didn’t really appreciate her until I got married, and I didn’t realize what she sacrificed until I became a mother.”

Malka and Aron worked seven days a week at their bakery to make sure their children had everything they wanted.

“The love I grew up with is just insurmountable,” Joan says. “I would say my mom is a true inspiration, and when you speak to her, you realize what’s important in life. She rarely complains. She only sees good and just wants to help people. I can’t believe how grateful and appreciative she is. She really  is amazing.”

Malka still loves to bake – her noodle kugel is a big hit at Joan’s monthly Yiddish classes – and her knitting is legendary. Malka estimates she has made more than 100 baby blankets for Joan’s friends.

“My body is very, very bad; I have a lot of problems,” Malka says. “But my mind is wonderful. I am very blessed.”