Testimony of Halina Chana (Kuperman) Siboni, born in 1938 in Zambrów, Poland, about her experiences in early childhood in hideouts in the Białystok area

Testimony of Halina Chana (Kuperman) Siboni, born in 1938 in Zambrów, Poland, about her experiences in early childhood in hideouts in the Białystok area Faint memories of parents; escapes in the snow; captured by peasasnts and saved by string of pearls that her mother handed over; father disappears; witness, four years old, surrendered by mother to the Polish Leszczynski family in a town near Zambrow; family's children abuse the witness; labor from morning to evening; witness placed with another family; witness left at the entrance to a Polish orphanage in Łomza in November 1942; admitted to the orphanage as a Polish girl and passing German inspection; transferred to an orphanage in Kolno on October 16, 1944; Soviet forces enter; witness sent back to the orphanage in Łomza about a year later; baptized on October 11, 1947; mother, in the United States, maintains contact with Druker as part of the Koordinacja for release of Jewish children from Christian institutions; after a court proceeding, Aliza Kyle named witness's guardian in 1949; witness removed from orphanage against her will and placed in a Jewish orphanage in Lodz; orphanage moves to Israel and the witness is placed in an orphanage in Bielsko Biale; discovers a Hashomer Hatzair group and wants to immigrate to Israel; obtains a tourist passport in Warsaw; travels to Venice by train and immigrates to Israel by ship in March 1950; adjusts to life in Israel.