During the occupation, Janina Barańska and her teenage son Stanisław lived in the small town of Rubieżewicze (General Commissariat of Belarus). She worked as a midwife in the local hospital, where many of her colleagues, most of them doctors, were Jewish. Moreover, she was actively engaged in the operations of various underground organisations.
Ita Grinau (actually Ita Ajzenbut), who was rescued by Janina Barańska during the occupations, remembers her as follows: “It is no secret that right until the very end of the war she provided aid for the entire Jewish population, she gave Jews food, medications, and money, and she was the connection between Jews and various Jewish partisan groups working in Soviet military units.” Janina Barańska often sent food and medications to the Rubieżewicze Ghetto, which operated from the autumn of 1941 until 1943. She was the connection between the Jews living in the ghetto and the partisans hiding in the nearby forests.
Barańska extended help to a doctor called Izaak Postbrief, who came to Rubieżewicze after the outbreak of the war. In the summer of 1942, he was deported to a labour camp with his wife and his four-year-old daughter Dina. With help from her son Stanisław, Janina took care of the child. For a period of time, Dina lived in a small building located close to the Barański house. At the time, Stanisław would help his mother and take care of the girl. After the war, the rescued woman said: “I was taken care of by Janina Barańska, who treated me like her own child, gave me food, clothes and everything I needed for about six months. When my life was in danger, she sent me to a Christian family in Kujdanów, but she often visited me there.”
Apart from the Postbrief family, Janina also helped other Jewish people: sisters Ita and Gita Grinabaum and the family of doctor Urwicz. She gave shelter to Izaak Szymonowicz during a manhunt in the village and she sent food packages to the family of doctor Genig, who had been deported to Siberia.
Dina Postbrief moved from Poland to Israel in 1957. She remained in contact with Janina Barańska. It is unsure whether Janina also kept in touch with other people she had helped.
