A Villager who survived the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp preached forgiveness throughout her life.
Miriam Machela Leventhal Apfel, 97, died Saturday.
She was born in Pilitza, Poland in 1924 on the German border, the youngest of seven children to Bracha and Motle Leventhal.
Miriam was preparing for the first day of her new school year when Germany invaded Poland. Separated from her family and taken to a labor camp, Miriam survived the Holocaust while most of her family did not. In the concentration camp, Miriam risked her life to smuggle food to the adjoining men’s camp where her brother was one of the prisoners. These heroic acts helped her in the future.
Freedom finally came in May 1945, when Russians liberated the camp. While Miriam tried to locate her family, she met Yehuda Apfel. Yehuda, born in Krakow, Poland, was a member of the British Army (in the Jewish Brigade) and a member of the underground Israeli Hagana.
Miriam and Yehuda married on Feb. 8, 1947, and planned to start a new life in Israel. They boarded a ship named Theodor Herzl which attempted to break through the British blockade to deliver thousands of survivors to Israel. Arriving in Haifa after a month at sea, the British attacked the ship and forced the ship to take the survivors to a displaced persons camp on the island of Cyprus.
In the camp, they lived in a tent with five other families. Their first child, a daughter named Bracha after Miriam’s mother, was born in June 1948. During their time in the camp, Yehuda was actively involved in the exodus of Jews through the underground into Israel.
Miriam and her baby finally arrived in Israel on one of the last refugee ships in December 1948 to be with Yehuda. In Israel, the family settled in Netanya where Yehuda worked as a police detective and Miriam cared for the family. Miriam and Yehuda’s son, Martin (Moty), named after Miriam’s father was born in August 1952 in Chedera, Israel
Miriam learned that two of her sisters had survived the war and settled in the United States and Canada. Two of the men who had survived the concentration camps because of the food Miriam had secretly provided, invited her and her family to Stamford, Conn. in 1964 where the Apfels settled. Yehuda became a plumber while Miriam worked at a number of jobs, though her primary job was always caring for her family.
In the early 1990s, Yehuda and Miriam moved to Central Florida to be closer to their daughter, Bracha, who was married with a family of her own. Yehuda passed away in 1993, just a year after they moved. Miriam moved to The Villages in 2005 and became an active member of Temple Shalom. She is a familiar figure to many Villagers who have heard her story at local Holocaust Yom Hashoah presentations.
Miriam is survived by her daughter Brach Smith of Oviedo, son Martin Apfel of Altamonte Springs, granddaughter Sharit Kelly, grandsons, Jacob and Mitchell Apfel; and three great-grandchildren. She was blessed to hold her new great-granddaughter Mikaela Apfel born on March 2, 2022.
Through all these struggles, Miriam said that she always knew she could take care of herself.
“I know what is important in life,” she said. “If you have your family, a roof over your head, some bread and some water, you are rich. Everything else is dessert.”
Her motto was “Always Forgive, New Forget.”