A CARD FROM THE CALENDAR - HELENA GROCHOWSKA (NÉE POREMBA)
Helenka became motionless. The voices of screaming Germans reached her from afar. They were walking towards a forest, herding a group of some people there. “Who are they gathering there? And why?”, wondered a terrified girl. Subconsciously, however, she didn’t want to know the answer. She knew that presence of Germans didn’t bode well. And she was right. The occupiers were leading Jews from a nearby ghetto in Sarny to execution. Some of the people detained there managed to escape the previous night. As it later turned out, one of the escapees and her child found shelter in Helenka’s house. However, the girl knew nothing about it at the time. It was safer that way. Helena Poremba, Helenka’s mother, was regularly going to the attic with food. “Mummy, who are you carrying this for?”, Helenka seemed to ask just with her eyes. And mum seemed to answer her daughter: “Don’t ask any question, Helenka. It’s better this way”. A Jewish woman probably survived the war.
