Helena Blam lived with her mother and step-father in Borysław, near Drohobycz, in the former Lwów Province. before the War, it was a centre for the production of oil and natural gas. Her step-father, Jozef Kurek, worked in the refinery.
During the German occupation. which began in June 1941, the whole family helped their Jewish friends who had been locked up in the ghetto, providing them with food. In June 1943, the Germans liquidated the Boryslaw ghetto, killing several hundred people on the spot. Some, who had managed to escape, found themselves in the Kurek home.
In 1944, Helena led a few Jews out of the nearby forced labour camp, (Grynberg says nine, Gutman says seven and provided the names: Mosze Blam, Izydor Majer and the five-member Rajner family) and hid them in a farmyard. Helena and her mother (her step-father had died by this time - details of the circumstances of his death are not consistent - Grynberg says that his death was due to a work accident, while, according to Gutman, he was murdered by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists as a result of rumours about him helping Jews) paid for their helping by being arrested and questioned in nearby Drohobycz. They did not admit to anything and were released. Those who were hiding managed to escape in time and fled to a nearby forest. They all survived.
After the War, Helena married one of those she was hiding, Mosze Blam and, in 1948, she left with him for Israel. There, she took the name "Sara" and converted to Judaism.
