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MCC Daily Tribune

"Tell Everyone My Story"


The Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project (HGHRP) has been inviting Holocaust survivors to share their stories for 30 years. Hearing their stories in the first person will not exist in the distant future. As we approach the 30th Annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration, we will continue to share the stories of the Rochester Holocaust survivors who have spoken at MCC over the past 30 years.

Today, we would like to introduce you to:

Holocaust Survivor Lea Malek

Born in April of 1939 in the provincial town of Janoshalma, Hungary, located some 105 miles south of Budapest, Lea Malek and other Jews were segregated from the local population. Her grandfather was blinded in one eye during his imprisonment by the Nazis. In 1942, Lea's father was taken by the Nazis to a slave labor camp, where he died while building a road to Stalingrad. According to camp survivors, the men were forced to remove mines to secure the road for German forces. In May of 1944, the Nazis commenced their roundup and deportation of Hungary's Jews. Lea's immediate and extended family were first deported to a camp located on the border of Austria and then-Czechoslovakia, and then from there to Auschwitz. Deportees were crammed together in a cattle car that featured, she said, "one tiny window with a bar across it. We were packed like herring in a jar." When they arrived at Auschwitz, her family tried to stay together but became separated, and those who were not chosen for work were murdered. Following the Russians' liberation of Auschwitz in January of 1945, Lea lived in Hungary. In 1956, during the chaos created by the Hungarian Revolution, Lea and her sister fled to Austria and then went to Israel. Lea met her husband in Israel and they came to the United States in 1960. They lived in Nebraska until 1966, when they moved to Rochester, NY. The Maleks later opened Malek's Bakery on Monroe Avenue, where they were able to pay for college for their three children. "As my grandmother taught me, 'What you learn through education, no one can take away from you.' "

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We invite you to join HGHRP alumni and current student leaders in paying tribute to Rochester-area Holocaust Survivors by helping to establish an endowed scholarship in their name at the MCC Foundation. The Chai Scholarship: A Tribute to Rochester Holocaust Survivors will be awarded to an MCC student who reflects these survivors' courage and spirit. Your donation can be sent to the MCC Foundation in care of Chai Scholarship.

The 30th Annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration will take place Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in the R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center Atrium. The traditional candle-lighting ceremony, the calling of the names, and Holocaust survivor testimony will begin at 9:00 a.m. Hosted by the HGHRP, this event is free and open to the college community.

For more information, contact Jodi Oriel (Office of Student Life and Leadership Development) at joriel@monroecc.edu.

William Drumright
Anthrop/History/Poli. Science/Sociology
03/10/2020