“I am a survivor,” says Malka “Mollie” Horwitz.
Horwitz, who recently turned 109 years of age, is the oldest living Holocaust survivor in Miami-Dade County.
She said she wants to tell her eyewitness account of the Holocaust to make sure the world knows what happened during World War II under Nazi Germany — and that it's not forgotten by future generations.
Horwitz, who lives in Miami Beach, is among more than 200,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who are still alive, though experts say 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years — meaning time is running out to hear the voices of the last generation who suffered through one of the worst atrocities in history.
Currently, the survivors’ median age is 87, and more than 1,400 of them — like Horwitz — are over 100 years old, according to a report released in April by the Claims Conference.
Six million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
Horwitz lost her parents, her husband and several other relatives during the Holocaust, she said during a recent interview shared by Jewish Community Services of South Florida. She was recognized as part of Holocaust Survivor Day on June 4.
Through its Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program, the non-profit agency provides personal care, meals and social support for the country’s more than 500 Holocaust survivors in Miami-Dade County. The average age of agency’s clients: 94.5.
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Horwitz was born in Lithuania on March 16, 1916. She was the youngest of nine kids.
At age 25, as a wife and young mother, she spent four horrific years imprisoned in the Vilna (Vilnius) ghetto. The Germans occupied the city in June 1941.
In her interview, Horwitz described her escape from Vilna during the war, saying she was forced to separate from her one son and live in the woods for several years to evade Nazi authorities.
In separating from her son for years, she told a story about how she wrote him a letter and stuffed it in his baby bottle in case she didn’t survive.
She escaped war-torn Europe and ended up in Cuba. But, when Fidel Castro took over as a dictator, Horwitz, like many families in Cuba, fled to the United States to escape communism.
She said she arrived to the U.S. with her two kids — Pinhus, known as Phillip, and one daughter, Sarah — and $20.
In her interview, she described the fear she lived with for so many years under Nazi occupation, saying her husband could not escape with her because he was a police officer.
“He says to me, you can go out, but [they] will not let me go out, because I am a policeman, and I know everything, what is going on and everything,” she recalled her conversation with her husband.
She said a former teacher who became a police captain — and who was Jewish and forced to work with the Germans — helped her get out of the ghetto.
“Mollie’s life is a powerful reminder that even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, the human spirit can endure,” said Natalie Herradon, Director of Case Management at JCS.
Horwitz has been featured in several interviews with local media outlets over the years and has been lauded as a symbol of survival, strength, and hope.
Earlier this year, Miami-Dade commissioners declared March 16 as "Mollie Horwitz Day."
To support JCS' Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program, please visit https://jcsfl.org/donate/
