Malska Maria

Malska, Maria Maria Malska lived in Dubno, in the Rowne district (Volhynia). During the German occupation she hid four Jews in a bunker that she dug under the floor of her house. They were: Haya Meiler, her daughter Zina, son-in-law Yankel, and a Jewish girl named Zlata Sherman. Malska took care of the refugees for more than a year and a half, keeping the secret from her three young children. She brought them food once a day. Her husband worked, at the time, in the town of Dubno and supported his family and the four Jews with his modest salary. He was also active in the Polish underground and resistance movement and when the Soviets liberated the area, he was executed as a Polish nationalist. As the Russians approached the town the Malskis were forced to flee, abandoning the Jews hidden in their house. They remained in the bunker without food and water for three days and nights, until they dug their way out. The Germans, who were still in the town, arrested them and put them in a truck with other detainees, where they were immediately identified as Jews. Only Zlata Sherman managed to jump off the truck, and despite being shot, she managed to escape. The members of the Meiler family, with whom she had spent the last 18 months in hiding, all perished. Sherman wandered through the countryside for a few days, and was again recognized as a Jew. She fled until she arrived at the home of the Rybachuk* (Ukraine) family, where she found refuge until the liberation. After the war, Sherman immigrated to France, and Maria Malska her savior moved to an area within Poland’s new borders. On October 14, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Malska as Righteous Among the Nations.