Helena Schweizer (née Horowitz) was born in Mikulińce in Podolia. She escaped from a forced labor camp in the Tarnopol province in July 1943, after the death of her parents and sister. She hid in the forest, then was taken by Jan Misiewicz to his friend, Michał Ogórek, who hid her with several other people in a hole under the ruins of a castle near Mikulińce. She hid there until March 23, 1944. After liberation, she returned to Mikulińce and met a familiar family there, with whom she had fled east due to the siege of Tarnopol. From there she went to Lviv, where she studied at a nursing school. After the end of the war she came to Poland, to Bytom. She joined a Zionist association, where she worked first wrapping candy, then in the kitchen. Together with the association she left for Wałbrzych, then through Bratislava, Vienna, Sankt Marein in Austria she ended up in Italy. Together with other emigrants she was placed in Cinecittà near Rome. Trying to get to Palestine, where her uncle lived - the only surviving member of the family, she sailed from the port near Rome on a ship sailing to Haifa. However, this ship was directed by the English to Cyprus; she was placed in the camp in June or July 1947. Due to her knowledge of English in the camp she was a liaison between its inhabitants and the English, she also worked in the clinic; her uncle from Palestine visited her there. On January 23, 1949 she arrived in Israel and lived with her uncle's family. In his house she met her husband, who came from Zduńska Wola and in 1935 came to Palestine; he served in the army, he was an active Zionist. Helena Schweizer worked as a nurse in Israel. She has two sons. INTERVIEWEE’S NAME: Helena Schweizer INTERVIEWED BY: Józef Markiewicz RECORDING: Józef Markiewicz DATE OF RECORDING: June 10, 2019 COPYRIGHT OF THE RECORDING: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews 00:00:38 - Work in the laundry; meeting with parents; death of parents. 00:06:45 - Escape from a labor camp. 00:09:42 - Hiding in the ruins of the castle; liberation. 00:15:06 - Entry of Soviet troops; return to Mikulinice; wartime fate of the interlocutor’s family house. 00:19:34 - Meeting with the pre-war tenants of the interlocutor’s grandfather; executions in the interlocutor’s family house. 00:21:57 - Siege of Tarnopol; escape to the east; stay in Zbarazh; return to Mikulinice. 00:27:32 - Arrival in Lviv; studies at nursing school. 00:30:10 - End of the war; repatriation: interrogation by the militia, meeting an acquaintance from the ghetto, help from the Jewish Committee. 00:36:32 - Journey to Poland; arrival in Bytom. 00:38:19 - Finding Jan Misiewicz; Jewish organizations. 00:41:14 - Kielce pogrom; Zionist association; work wrapping candy. 00:42:46 - Dinner for the association's management; work in the kitchen. 00:46:19 - Departure for Wałbrzych; care of Mrs. Blatt. 00:49:13 - Stay in Bratislava; arrival in Vienna. 00:53:27 - Departure for Italy; stay in Cinecittà. English: 01:04:00 - Organization of the interlocutor's trip to Palestine. 01:07:22 - Departure from Rome; arrival in Cyprus. 01:12:05 - The journey to Cyprus; the fate of Mrs. Blatt and her daughters. 01:13:52 - Stay in a camp in Cyprus: meetings with her uncle, visit of an American engineer. 01:19:39 - Arrival in Israel. 01:20:39 - Stay in Cyprus: work in the camp, relations with the English. 01:22:31 - Work as Grigorenko's secretary in Kamionki; help for Kuba Morgenstern and his subsequent fate; Kuba's family. 01:39:56 - Reasons for leaving Poland. 01:41:17 - The Kielce pogrom; contact with the Misiewiczes after the war. 01:42:10 - The interlocutor's family home; help from Ludwina and Michał and the Opatyński family. 01:47:52 - The interlocutor’s family home. 01:49:35 - The interlocutor’s sister’s education; the interlocutor’s education. 01:52:00 - Soviet occupation; studies in a Russian school. 01:57:45 - The interlocutor’s sister takes poison. 02:03:32 - Last meeting with her parents and sister. 02:04:50 - Meeting with her uncle’s family in Israel. 02:05:49 - The fate of the interlocutor’s husband. 02:10:00 - Lack of understanding of the Holocaust in post-war Israel. 02:14:40 - The interlocutor’s professional life; the family of the interlocutor’s sons. 02:16:26 - The interlocutor’s life in Israel. 02:17:11 - The wartime fate of the interlocutor’s husband’s family. 02:21:41 - The interlocutor’s social activities; the life of the interviewee in retirement; the families of the interviewee's sons. Discover the POLIN Museum's oral history collection: https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/historia-mow... Subscribe to our channel: / @historiamowionapolin Watch the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews channels: POLIN (announcements and reports from events at the Museum): / mhzp2013 Virtual Shtetl (history and culture of Polish Jews): / virtualshtetl Polish Righteous (stories of help provided to Jews during the Holocaust): / polscysprawiedliwi Contact for the interview: digital