The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the “Witnesses to the Age” project.

Welcome to the “Witnesses to the Age” channel. If you appreciate the value of our content, click the “thumbs up” and watch other videos on our channel. Subscribe to help us grow our channel and share even more fascinating stories. Leave your opinion in the comment section below. If you know someone who would like to share their story with is, contact us via email at: [email protected]

Our today’s interviewee:
Helena Szarek née Krawczykowicz (born in 1927), Righteous Among the Nations (2002). She talks about her family’s relations with the Jewish community in Brańsk near Bielsk Podlaski. She was friends with Szoszana Finkelsztajn, and her older brother’s best friend was Wełwko Alperin. During German occupation, the Krawczykowicz family helped Jews who were in hiding by providing shelter, food and warm clothes in winter. Wełwko and his family were hiding in a forest dugout. Someone denounced them – when the Germans organized a manhunt and executed the Jews, Wełwko was the only one who survived. He found refuge at the Krawczykowiczs’ house. Szoszana and Wełwko managed to survive German occupation. They got married after the war and settled in Białystok, where Szoszana gave birth to two girls. One day, Szoszana’s father Chaim Finkelsztajn came to Brańsk for business and was murdered by thugs who were trying to rob him. This was one of the reasons why Wełwko and Szoszana Alperin decided to emigrate to Israel. Helena Szarek talks about how she reconnected with her old friends at the end of 1980s thanks to the help of a Polish priest. Wełwko and Szoszana visited their home town many years later and Helena Szarek spent two months in Israel, welcomed very warmly by her childhood friends who had been rescued from the Holocaust.

Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.