Marian Miklin

IJN StaffDec 02, 2021Obituaries0

Marian Miklin

Marian Miklin, a longtime Denverite and Holocaust survivor, died November 29, 2021 in Denver. Rabbi Ben Last officiated at the graveside burial at Mt. Nebo Cemetery. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.

Mirka Kestenberg was born July 1, 1925 in Slupia Nowa, Poland. Her parents, Shiya and Rivka Kestenberg, were known in their community for their charity. They were Zionists who supported Zev Jabotinsky’s Betar movement. As a child, Mrs. Miklin attended Beit Yaakov, a Jewish religious school for girls.

At the age of 14 the Nazis invaded her shtetl. Over the next few years, she became an orphan, losing her parents; she also lost her younger brothers Yechiel and Meir, as well as her grandparents, uncles, aunts and many cousins. Many of them were killed in Auschwitz and Treblinka.

She endured years of slave labor, starvation, disease, torture, abuse and multiple selections, surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau and a death march in December, 1944. En route to Mauthausen in February, 1945, she and two of her sisters escaped the train. They hid in haystacks before a sympathetic Czech family let them sleep in and work in the fields in exchange for food. The region was liberated by the Soviet army on May 9, 1945.

She met and married Beryl Miklin, a fellow survivor, in the Neu Freimann Displaced Persons camp near Munich. The couple immigrated to the US a few years later and settled in Denver. They established a men’s clothing store and tailor shop on East Colfax.

Their social circle included other Holocaust survivors.

The Miklins were an active couple, the family shared, swimming thousands of laps and walking loops around Crestmoor Park.

Mr. Miklin passed away in 1998.

Mrs. Miklin dedicated her last decades to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and “scratch baked the most decadent and appetizing pastries and cakes,” the family said.

Mrs. Miklin is survived by her children Dr. Jerry (Freda) Miklin and Lorraine (Dr. Bruce) Greenstein; sister Hanka Flammenbaum; grandchildren Alissa (Adam), Carly (John), Tyler (Rachel), Dr. Lisa (Benjamin), Dr. Aaron (Hannah), Alex, Becky (Nathan), Dr. Danny, David, Jason and Zach, and great grandchildren Bella, Molly, Eli, Moshe Ber, Meya, and Jacob. She was predeceased by her son Mark (Karen) Miklin and sister Sima (Henich) Gutzstein.