Barbara Góra (Irena Hochberg) - Rescued

She was born in 1932 in Warsaw as Irena Hochberg. Barbara finished the first grade of primary school when the war broke out. In November 1941 her family was forced to move to the Warsaw ghetto. While Germans were plundering the ghetto and the massive deportation to Treblinka took place, her family hid in an attic. Miraculously they survived the raid.

Mr. Hochberg decided they have to escape from the ghetto. In 1942 Barbara was the first that managed to escape to the "Aryan side" with help from Kazimierz Krauze. Later she was moved to Dzierżanowski’s house but they were already hiding one Jewish girl. She had to moved to another family – Szmurło. She also lived with Mrs. Zucker, a German, who had a Jewish husband, but unfortunately she was arrested when she refused to sign Reichlist. Barbara had to moved again to another family near Lublin. Because of her Aryan looks, she was able to walk around the city and use trains.

In June 1944 Barbara, her father and sister moved to Grochów (Warsaw district), where her mother was still hidden. They lived on the east side of Vistula River, which left them out of the Warsaw Uprising. After The Soviet Army entered Warsaw in 1944, the Hochbergs moved to Anin. Barbara went back to school, passed “matura” (the final exams in high school) and went to Moscow to study at the university of agriculture.