Irena Agata Bołdok was born in 1932. Her parents were Henryk Likierman and Anna née Hampel. The family lived in Warsaw at ul. Marszałkowska 49. During World War II, Irena, together with her parents and older sister Helena, was confined to the Warsaw ghetto, living at ul. Sienna. In the ghetto, she fell ill with meningitis. At the urging of an acquaintance named Wiernicka, Irena and her sister were baptized in the Church of the Holy Cross. Then, together with her mother, they escaped the ghetto and moved in with her father's sister in Międzyrzec Podlaski. After some time, Irena's mother returned to Warsaw under an assumed name to get her husband and older daughter out of the ghetto, but she was captured and sent to work in Germany, later to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück. Irena was left in the care of her aunt in the ghetto in Międzyrzec Podlaski. She stayed there until her aunt's family was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. During the transport, her aunt and her family committed suicide. Irena was saved by a Polish railwayman and began her wanderings. She ended up with her mother's friend, a convent orphanage and a nursing home. In 1946, she managed to find her mother, who died soon after. Irena Agata Bołdok worked as a proofreader in the editorial office of "Żołnierz Wolności" and in the State Youth Publishing House "Iskra". She currently lives in Warsaw and is a member of the "Children of the Holocaust" Association. INTERVIEWER'S NAME: Irena Agata Bołdok INTERVIEW BY: Przemysław Kaniecki RECORDING: Józef Markiewicz DATE OF RECORDING: October 28, 2022 COPYRIGHT OF THE RECORDING: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews WATCH THE FILM PERSONAL PORTRAIT: • Irena Agata Bołdok. I felt I was hiding... MOST IMPORTANT THREADS: 00:00:43 - Childhood in Warsaw, moving to the ghetto. 00:05:06 - Meeting with my mother in 1946, Jewish identity. 00:10:46 - The circumstances of the move to Sienna Street before the establishment of the ghetto. 00:12:17 - Memories from the ghetto. 00:14:29 - Apartment in the ghetto at Sienna 30. 00:16:05 - Escape with her mother through a hole in the ghetto wall; 00:17:11 - Memories from the ghetto, getting food, missing sister; 00:23:53 - The impact of the trauma suffered during the Holocaust on her present life. 00:27:23 - The post-war fate of the interlocutor. 00:35:55 ​​- Trauma connected with Sienna Street in Warsaw. 00:38:56 - The impact of a visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem on identity. 00:43:28 - The home of a pre-war assimilated Jewish family. 00:46:10 - Meeting with a German in Międzyrzec Podlaski, manifestation of the will to survive and Jewish identity. 00:51:25 - Finding cousins ​​after the war, contacts with family in England, family mementos. 01:00:32 - Double identity, discovering it in the "Children of the Holocaust" Association. 01:06:04 - The events of March '68, their impact on the life of the interviewee, her husband's reluctance to leave, staying in the country, her husband's work at the weekly "Polityka", his later activities. 01:11:05 - Finding a photo of her mother, establishing contact with the Wiernicki family, finding the pre-war housekeeper, family photographs. 01:12:40 - Meetings with the Wiernicki family. 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): / wirtualneshtetl Polish Righteous (stories of help provided to Jews during the Holocaust): / polscysprawiedliwi Contact for interview sharing: [email protected] #PolinMuseum #SpokenHistory #WarsawGhetto #Ghetto #Warsaw #Holocaust #WorldWarII