Miriam Kuperhand (1926–2018)

Miriam Kuperhand was the daughter of a furrier. She grew up in Siemiatycze, a small town near what became the Russian-German border in 1939. At age 16, during the Nazi Occupation of the country in World War II, she and her brother first hid in an underground bunker with the rest of the family, and later roamed the countryside of Poland, hiding and searching for food and shelter. After the war, she emigrated to the USA, settling in Brooklyn, New York and running a clothing business. Her husband Saul Kuperhand (born 1922) was the son of an impoverished shoemaker. His parents and nine siblings were all murdered in the concentration camp at Treblinka. Saul survived by escaping from the camp. Their joint memoir Shadows of Treblinka was published in 1998.