Miriam Kominkowska Greenstein (born Miriam Kominkowska in Sompolno, Poland) had
limited avenues to safety as a Jew within Nazi-occupied Poland. Miriam’s community faced a number of
limitations and abuses in Sompolno before being
deported to the Łódź ghetto in 1941 and then Auschwitz in 1944. After her
mother’s murder at Auschwitz, Miriam endured forced labor alone in
Bergen-Belsen and Magdeburg before her liberation by British forces at the age
of 16. With no living relatives remaining in Poland, Miriam immigrated to
Portland, Oregon after the war to live with her uncle who had settled there
before WWII began. Miriam started speaking publicly
about her experiences as a survivor in 1988 in order to fight prejudice. Miriam subsequently served as a board member for the
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, helped establish the
Oregon Holocaust Memorial, and remained active on the Holocaust Speaker’s
Bureau until her death. In 2010, she published a memoir, In the Shadow of
Death.
Miriam's speech was delivered at Corvallis High School.
