Vale Helena Sotoła (1926–2018)

The Germans came inside accompanied by an interpreter. […] They quickly grabbed hold of dad and that interpreter asked him where were the Jews who were hidden. However, dad wouldn't betray innocent people. […] They took him to Montelupich prison […] He went in wearing what he stood up in - no warm clothes on him. Mum lamented that he had only taken a light jacket over his shirt - and that was all. It was winter. After some time, a parcel came, but mum suggested that it was not dad's shirt. It was a little blood-spattered. When the partisans put something on the tracks and a German train, heading for the front, was derailed [...], in retribution, they took twenty prisoners from Montelupich. They made a list on which my dad was included. They shot them all on Wzgórza Krzesławickie – Helena Sotoła.

During World War II, Helena Sotoła, together with her parents Stanisław (1897–1944) and Bronisława (1900–1984) Kluba, extended help to local Jews who had not ended up in the Bochnia ghetto. From 1941, those hidden in their home were Mosze Landwir, a cattle trader from Kamyk, Irena Rajs, the daughter of a Łapanów butcher and Franciszka, the daughter of a Nieznanowice miller. On 4th December 1943, their farm was searched. Stanisław Kluba was arrested and taken to Kraków, where he perished in 1944. 

Read the story of Helena Sotoła and her family »

On 5th February 1985, the Kluba family was honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Their story was published onour website, based on an interview, given by Helena Sotoła, to POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on 17th August 2007.

Helena Sotoła died on 27th July 2018 in Łapanów (Małopolskie Province), at the age of 92. She was buried in the parish cemetery in Sobolów.