Helena Stesłowicz, a Jewish woman from Lviv, was dismissed from the concentration camp in Majdanek in September 1943, after she had convinced the Nazis that she was Polish. Thanks to Caritas, a Catholic charity organization, she found a job helping out in a kitchen of one of the hospitals in Opole Lubelskie.
A short while after, a rumor that Stesłowicz was Jewish spread all over the hospital. She started to receive threats. Wiesława Myczkowska, the administrative director of the hospital and a person of great respect, criticized the hospital’s staff and made sure Helena wasn’t bothered anymore. She even got her the so-called “Aryan papers” (i.e. fake papers).
When the Nazis conducted a control of the hospital, Wiesława hid Helena in her house. She stayed with Myczkowska till July of 1944, when the Soviets entered Opole Lubelskie. After World War II Stesłowicz remained in Poland and kept in touch with Myczkowska. However, she moved to Switzerland after the witch-hunt had been launched by the Communist party against people of Jewish origin in 1968 in Poland.
