We Were the Lucky Ones

Halina is held prisoner in the infamous Montelupich Prison. She has been beaten and questioned over a dozen times in five days: “She is on the brink of giving up. But she knows she must swallow the pain, the humiliation, the blood dripping from her nose, her forehead, her upper lip” (311). She refuses to let the Gestapo win.

The Home Army uprising failed. When Halina emerged from her apartment building, she saw the obliterated neighborhood. Halina struggled to get to Franka’s building, which was completely destroyed, with no sign of Franka or Franka’s parents. Halina made it to Jakob’s building, where she miraculously found Jakob crawling out of the rubble with Bella.

With the group starving and desperate, Halina decided to try for Kraków, where her employer was transferred. Adam didn’t wanted her to go alone, but Halina felt that he was still needed in the Underground and Mila could not leave without Felicia.

Soldiers arrested Halina as she got off the train in Kraków. She was put into a cell with three dozen other women, only a few of whom were Jews: “Her offense, according to the Gestapo, is her faith. But she’ll never admit it. Her religion will never be a crime” (313).