Marek was born in Lublin, Poland, in 1939 to his parents, Leib and Sara Mark. Marek lost his parents in approximately 1942 at age 3. His mother perished at Majdanek, and his father in an unknown location.” 

“I survived the occupation hidden by a Polish family in Lublin. Unfortunately, I was unable to learn anything about these people. From before the hiding time, I have two scenes seared in my memory.”

Marek remembers crossing a body of water while sitting on a man’s back. His second memory is of being in a two-story house during the German occupation, while a disturbance in the middle of the night had many people running around up and down the stairs.

Marek’s hiding place was a dark room with a big bed. “I do not remember how many times other people were with me except for one instance when two older girls shared the bed with me. I do not remember how I was fed and clothed, but I definitely do not recall being hungry, cold, or scared.”

Marek recalls the occupation ending with a couple of days of continuous bombardment.

“I remember the “happy days” of roaming in the ruins, taking apart and burning the unexploded munitions.” His next memory was of a man in a Polish army uniform driving Marek to a Jewish orphanage in Chorzow. At this one, and in other Jewish orphanages, Marek completed elementary school. 

Marek was adopted in 1952 by the Frodis family, also Holocaust refugees from Warsaw. In 1957 they emigrated together to Israel. Marek and his wife moved to Canada in 1972, where they raised two sons and 4 grandchildren.