The Heschel School

Maria Kaslow was born in Stanislovov, Poland on April 22, 1924 into a moderately observant family. During World War II, she lost her parents, Rachel and Sigmund, and only sibling, her sister Celina, who were all killed by the Nazis

Maria was in the Stanislovov Ghetto when she was taken by the Nazis at night into the woods. The German police took all of the Jews to a mass grave and began to shoot them. Luckily, the bullet aimed at Maria missed her. Once she realized she was still alive she knew she had to get away, so she snuck onto a train and told Ukrainian soldiers on the train that she was a Christian girl from a small town in Poland who was running away from her parents because of an arranged marriage. 

One soldier said she could stay with him, so she went back to his home. At his house, he tried to rape her. The soldier’s roommate, Nicholas, also a Ukrainian soldier, came in and kicked the soldier out. Nicholas and Maria fell in love. They were living together for three months when one day, while Nicholas was shaving, Maria admitted to him that she was Jewish. He paused and didn’t say anything. He then left the apartment for 3 days. Maria later learned that he had gone back to his parents’ house to steal his sister’s papers for Maria to use as her own. Maria used the papers to find work with the Ukrainian soldiers. When people became suspicious of Maria, she and Nicholas set off by foot to Hungary, as the Nazis were not occupying Hungary). They trekked through the Carpathian Mountains and arrived in Budapest.

In Budapest, Maria reunited with her high school sweetheart, Edward (Myeteck) Insler, whom she married. Edward, Maria and Nicholas joined with other Hungarian resistance fighters to help Raoul Wallenberg save Jews in Budapest. Edward and Maria continued that work until the War ended in 1945. Their son Leonard was born in Budapest in 1946. They left Hungary in 1948 and resided in Munich, Germany for four years while waiting for documentation to enter the United States. They came to the States in 1952. Myeteck died in 1968, and Maria married Ned Kaslow in 1974. In the United States, Maria became a successful interior designer who opened her own art and antique gallery. She was also an avid writer of poetry and manuscripts. Ned and Maria were happily married for nearly 30 years. Nicholas is honored as a righteous gentile at Yad Vashem.