Janina Fischler was born in April 1930, in Kraków, Poland.  Before the German invasion, Janina lived in modest circumstances in Kraków with her parents, her elder brother, Joseph, and her younger brother, Bartuś.

She was nine years old when the German army invaded Poland. Restrictions were immediately imposed on Jews: their schools were closed, they were not allowed on public transport, and all were forced to wear the Star of David armband. The Kraków ghetto was set up in March 1941, and Janina and her family had to move there in November. Living conditions had deteriorated by this stage in the overcrowded ghetto.  The family had one basement room, with no sanitation and no running water. Janina knew the Polish policeman on the gates, and was allowed to slip in and out of the ghetto to get the food and money that helped her family survive.

In June 1942 there was an Aktion (round-up) by the SS. One of Janina’s aunts was taken for ‘resettlement in the East’. Janina saw endless queues of people waiting to be deported. Another Aktion was held in June – Janina’s parents and Bartuś were taken away to be 'resettled'; Janina and Joseph stayed behind, and moved in with members of their family who had not yet been deported. At this point many in the ghetto thought they would soon be getting letters from those who had been 'resettled': they did not yet suspect what the Germans were actually doing.

Janina became a little entrepreneur; she smuggled goods between the ghetto and the rest of Kraków.  She could speak fluent Polish, which allowed her to carry on for several months without being caught, and in that way supported her family. In October 1942 another Aktion took place.  Joseph was taken, but he escaped from his truck and returned to find Janina.

It was clear by late 1942 that the ghetto was being liquidated, and in March 1943 it was cordoned off for the final deportations. As a young, frail girl, Janina stood little chance of being selected for work by the SS. Joseph helped Janina escape through the sewers and escorted her into the countryside. Knowing that he would soon be caught if he stayed with her, Joseph went back to his labour unit in Kraków.

Janina started on ‘a two year trek, my two year odyssey’. She had no money, and her only clothes were covered in sewer filth. She trekked from village to village, offering herself as a casual labourer. In this way she would survive for two years on the run – malnourished, lice-ridden and covered in abscesses. In the nearby town of Pleszów, a farming family took her in from September 1943 until the following May. ‘It was the harshest, most barren, most emotionally deprived time’ of her life. They fed her poorly, hardly spoke to her and provided no washing facilities.

She moved on, and in June 1944 managed to find a small room, with better living conditions, in Godów, north of Kraków. She stayed there until January 1945.

She subsequently returned to Kraków to look for her family, but of her extended pre-war family, only four had survived. One of them was her brother Joseph, with whom she was re-united in August 1945.  But their life was irrevocably changed; ‘we both knew that the big wound – the loss of our parents and little Bartuś – would never heal’. Janina and Joseph travelled to Italy, before emigrating to Britain in 1946.