The war broke out when she was 17. The Russians who had a pact with the Germans invaded the Eastern part of Poland, and made everyone learn Russian at school. Only a few weeks ago, Marysia was complemented on her spoken Russian by someone of Russian origin.

The horrors began in 1941 when the Germans took over that part of Poland from the Russians. The Ukrainians and Poles helped the Germans hunt down the Jews and sometimes attacked them. Marysia was raped by a Ukrainian whom she worked with. She never told her parents about this.

One day when Marysia and her mother were at home, they heard that the Gestapo were coming. Her mother pushed her into a chicken pen and shoved a large kitchen cupboard in front of it. That saved her life. Her mother and 500 other Jews from Boryslaw were rounded up and shot. Her brother was subsequently captured and taken to a concentration camp where he perished.
Her father hid in the woods and managed to survive there until 1944 when he was found and taken to Auschwitz where he too perished.