European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Right after the Soviet army came, Helena went to Vilnius straight away

and as a doctor she was mobilized. But at the beginning in Vilnius there were still Germans.

The Russians occupied all Vilnius and lists of Poles

were made who could and would like to work in the offices of PKWN in Lublin.

I did not want to be in this list, I was proposed to be in this list, nobody offered me that.

But in fact people in that list were me, the Świezewskis, there was Helena…

Finally when we left the van which took us from the Lublin airport to Lublin,

we reached Spokojna Street, it was a street in which before the war there was a province building

and after the war too, to that time there was the office of PKWN.

Listen, it was totally unbelievable while we were going in this van from the airport to Lublin

we saw stores and everywhere Polish names, notices, army in Polish uniforms.

It was extremely impressive after this all the mess, after the war.

The Warsaw Uprising was continuing, we knew about the Warsaw Uprising,

we knew about everything.

Here were Polish words and the Polish army.

Helena Snarska’s escape from a transport to Treblinka

I need to add that as I said earlier there were two priests in Vilnius,

priest Chlebowicz, who gave Maryśka the birth certificate

and priest Kretowicz, and the brother of Kretowicz, Onufry - the old man, who used to sit in upper Orwidów,

he also gave two false birth certificates.