Miriam Mark

Miriam Mark (née Maierfeld) was born in June 1931 in Przędzel, a small village in southern Poland to parents Chaim and Rosa Maierfeld née Haar. She was the oldest of three children in a Jewish family and had two little brothers, Moses and Nathan. Her early years were spent in modest circumstances, and her father sought economic improvement by emigrating. The family left Poland when Miriam was about five or six years old, most likely in 1937 or 1938, and settled in Antwerp, Belgium. Her father had initially hoped to move to South America or the Netherlands, where her mother had an uncle, but only Belgium granted him residence.

Miriam’s early memories of Poland were fragmentary, consisting mainly of family scenes and the village environment. Her father had attempted several business ventures, including running a shoe shop that failed due to his generosity in offering discounts to friends. Her maternal grandfather was a licensed seller of alcohol and tobacco.

When the family left for Antwerp, the parents left the two little brothers with the grandparents in Poland. In Antwerp, enrolled Miriam in the Tachkemoni Jewish Primary School, where she learned Flemish. The family spoke Yiddish at home, and Miriam also spoke some Polish from her earlier schooling. Her parents had no extended family in Belgium and supported themselves through casual work; her mother did sewing and domestic jobs, while her father undertook various forms of employment.

The German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940 abruptly ended their stability. Miriam recalled seeing German soldiers marching through Antwerp’s streets and her family deciding to flee immediately. They boarded a train heading south toward France, joining many other refugees. She remembered British planes dropping food parcels for those fleeing along the route or British soldiers. Travelling with her parents and her mother’s sister, the family moved south by train and on foot until reaching Port-Vendres, a port on the French Mediterranean coast near the Spanish border.

In June 1940, after several weeks in flight, Miriam’s family escaped aboard the SS Apapa, a British ship whose captain—later honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations—agreed to take on a limited number of Jewish refugees. Miriam described the chaotic scene at the port, where thousands were waiting for rescue, and being selected among a few to board. She turned nine during the voyage. Conditions were harsh; food was scarce, and she endured a traumatic incident when a Polish soldier briefly held her over the ship’s rail and threatened to throw her into the sea. The journey lasted about two weeks, as the ship avoided submarines before arriving in Liverpool on 7 July 1940.

Upon arrival, the family was warmly welcomed, likely by Jewish relief workers. Miriam received gifts and a doll. Her father was briefly asked to sign a document that would have enlisted him in the Polish Army, which her mother successfully contested. Classified as Polish citizens rather than enemy aliens, the family was relocated to London, where they initially lived with a non-Jewish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bircher, in South London. Later they settled in Stamford Hill, a district with a Jewish community.

Miriam attended Crowland Road School in Stamford Hill but was soon evacuated to Wales, to Pontypridd, where she lived for about a year with the Sault family, whom she later revisited as an adult. She adapted quickly to English life, developing a strong Welsh accent and learning English fluently. Returning to London during the war, she experienced the Blitz, often sheltering under the stairs and later in shelters during air raids.

Her father later joined the British Army, working mainly in kitchens. The family moved several times within London. At the war’s end, they learned that Miriam’s two brothers and grandparents—left behind in Poland—had been executed by the Nazis. Her mother corresponded with former neighbours to confirm this, and the discovery deeply affected her. Miriam remained close to her mother, who continued to work as a seamstress and kept a kosher home.

After the war, Miriam’s father obtained British citizenship, which he viewed as a great honour. Miriam left school around age sixteen, trained in shorthand and typing at Pitman’s College, and worked as a secretary. She later pursued Open University studies in art history, earning a degree.

She married Eric Mark, a German-Jewish refugee from Magdeburg, who had arrived in Britain in 1935 as a child. He later became an economist working for Shell and the European Commission. The couple lived in Kenton (Middlesex), then moved to the Netherlands in the late 1950s and to Belgium in 1974. They had three children.

Her husband, formerly Erich Mark, was later revealed to have served as a “secret listener” in British intelligence during the Second World War, an experience documented in Helen Fry’s research.

Key words: Maierfeld. Przędzel, Poland. Antwerp. Tachkemoni Jewish Primary School. Port-Vendres. SS Apapa. Yad Vashem Righteous. Pontypridd. Wales. Eric Mark “secret listener”.