summary

Today Janina Pietrasiak and Maria Lopuszanska live like sisters. They meet daily and help each other out. Both lives alone and are not affluent. Janina lives alone in a modest apartment. Maria’s parents were anti-Nazi underground activists. They sheltered Janina and her mother. Janina’s mother died of tuberculosis. The young Janina clung desperately to her new family. She becomes part of the family to avoid killed by the Nazis. She forfeits the chance to live with an uncle in the United States. During the Warsaw Uprising, the girls had to fend for themselves. Maria's father was sick and her mother was demonstrating against the Nazis. Maria was like a mother to the younger Janina. Janina lost both parents. Her only sibling survived the war but later committed suicide. Both suffered from cancer. Maria is a breast cancer survivor. Janina is separated. Maria is a widow. She contacted the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
(154 words)