How love conquered hate: Roslyn Holocaust survivor tells her story

Amid the horror of losing most of her family in the Holocaust, it was a French couple's decision to take in Rachel Malmed and her brother that proved to be a demonstration of the lasting power of love.

Almost 80 years later, Rachel Malmed, now Rachel Epstein, and Frederique Allart, a great-granddaughter in the French Christian family, were reunited Monday at the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore in Plandome as part of the Adopt A Survivor program, in which participants learn about the Holocaust and hear in-person accounts from survivors — part of a broader effort to deepen understanding about those who lived and those who perished.

“You can always see the hope in the bad,” said Allart, who still lives in the French city where her great-grandparents opened their home to the Malmed children. Her family and Epstein have remained close since their first fateful meeting during World War II.

Story of survival

Started on Long Island in 1999, the Adopt A Survivor program was the brainchild of the late Irving Roth, of Williston Park, a Holocaust educator, according to a previous Newsday story. Since then, the program has grown to include schools across the country.

Epstein, of Roslyn, was there Monday to tell her story of survival. But it carried its own obstacle, she said. Remembering the sleepless nights. The loss of nearly all of her family.

“It’s not easy because every time I talk about my story. I’m not here. I’m there,” she said.

And by there she means back to Compiègne, about 50 miles north of Paris.

Early one morning in 1942, French police knocked on her parents'  front door, after the Nazis told French law enforcement to detain Jewish people, according to a 2018 account given by Epstein's younger brother, Leon Malmed, in the Reno Gazette-Journal, near where he lived in Nevada. 

It was the last time Rachel Epstein, then 10, and her younger brother saw their parents.

The parents, Srul and Chana Malmed, were taken away. But before the two young children could be removed, Allart's great-grandparents Henri and Suzanne Ribouleau stepped in to take care of them, Epstein said.

A risky decision

The decision could have cost the couple their lives if they were found to have two Jewish children in their home. But the move proved to be lifesaving. Nearly all of Epstein’s other family members died.

Even with the turmoil, Epstein said, the Ribouleau family treated them like they were their own children, who were then 17 and 19.

“We had love,” she said. “Not this kind of love that you hug and kiss, and say 'I love you' and all of that, but [a] different kind of love."

She also noted: “If we were arrested, they would have come with us."

By the time Allart was born decades later, she said, the story was ingrained in her. The two families had stayed close. She has visited them in the United States multiple times, as has Epstein when she visited France. Today, she describes Epstein as an aunt.

“I’m proud of them,” she said, growing emotional as she spoke. “It makes me cry all the time.”

To further explain the connection, Epstein referred to a tree they planted at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel. When they first planted the tree together, it was small, she said. But since then, it has grown, much like their relationship.

Having Epstein and Allart share how they are linked forever by the past allowed participants in Monday's event to get an “historical narrative” of the Holocaust through the lens of an intimate, personal story, said Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore Rabbi Jodie Siff.

“Seeing that connection, across the generations, across the continents and understanding the thread of that connection, that thread of standing up and standing with people regardless of race, religion or anything, and making sure to ensure the survival of people, just because they are people, is paramount,” she said.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.