- Biography
- Miriam Friedman Ziegler was born in Radom, Poland on May 21, 1935. She grew up in Ostrowiec, Poland, the only child of Herschel Friedman and Rose Alkichen Friedman. After Germany invaded Poland, Miriam and her family were forced into the Ostrowiec ghetto. They stayed there until 1944 when the Germans deported Miriam and her parents to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Bella Naiberg, Miriam's maternal aunt was deported with them as well. Miriam's maternal grandmother, Faiga Alkichen, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 from another ghetto. Upon their arrival in Birkenau, Miriam was taken to the "Gypsy camp," where she was one of only six children from that transport who were placed there, probably for "medical" experiments. On January 27, 1945 Miriam and her grandmother were liberated in Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army. Miriam's father was forced on a death march and died as a result. After the liberation Miriam was placed in a Jewish children's home in Krakow. She had contracted tuberculosis in Auschwitz and was sent to a sanatorium for recuperation in Rabka. Rose, Miriam's mother located her daughter in the children's home in Krakow as well as her own mother, who had returned to Ostrowiec. In 1946 Miriam, her mother, her aunt Bella, and her grandmother left Poland and reached Austria. They were placed in the Bindermichl DP camp, near Linz. Miriam was sent to the Strobel children's home, near Salzburg, Austria, because her mother was unable to care for her. In 1948, under the "Orphan's Act" Miriam emigrated to Canada and her mother joined her there two years later. In 1958 Miriam married Roman Ziegler, a survivor from Dabrowa Gornicza in Poland, who lived in numerous camps until he was liberated in Sportschule in Dzierzoniow, Poland. Miriam and Roman Ziegler settled in Toronto, Canada.
