She Led the Children Through the Forest – Poland, 1944

In the autumn of 1944, as the German army tightened its grip on occupied Poland, 16-year-old Helena Nowak found herself responsible for six younger children after their parents were taken in a roundup. Armed with nothing but courage and the memory of secret forest paths her father had once shown her, Helena guided the children out of their burning village.

They walked barefoot at night, covering their tracks in the damp leaves, and hid in hollow trees by day. Helena carried the youngest—a three-year-old girl—while keeping the others quiet with whispered songs. When hunger struck, she scavenged roots and bartered a family heirloom brooch for a few scraps of bread from a farmer who dared not speak.

After weeks of wandering, the group finally stumbled upon partisans deep in the forest who took them in. All six children survived because of Helena’s resolve. Decades later, one of them, now an old man, said: “She was only a girl herself, yet she became our mother, our shield, our savior.”