After his father escaped to the United Kingdom and his mother was arrested by the Gestapo, he lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland with his extended family in Radom and Lublin.

[4] After he retired, his extensive collection of books (several thousand volumes), illustrative material (photographs and drawings), and slides were purchased by the University of Rzeszów for its Institute of Archaeology.

As a professor emeritus, Malinowski lived in Poznań, where he reviewed doctoral works and habilitations and continued his scientific research and writing.

Malinowski's research mainly dealt with Central European funeral rites in prehistory and the early Middle Ages.

[5] With his brother, Andrzej, he published the book Wspomnienia z obozów: Majdanek-Oświęcim-Ravensbrück-Neu Rohlau-Zwodau (2008) on the diaries of their mother, who survived several Nazi concentration camps during World War II.