Blam Sara (Bogner); Blam Sara (Kurek)

Blam-Kurek, Sara-Helena When the city of Boryslaw in Eastern Galicia was overrun by the Germans, Helena Kurek rushed to the aid of Jews in need of a place to hide from the decrees imposed on them. Some of Kurek’s Jewish acquaintances fled to her home, where she lived with her mother and stepfather. She hid them there during the Aktionen the Germans carried out in the Borysław ghetto. People living in the area began to hear about the help that Kurek and her parents were extending to the Jews, and in September 1943, Ukrainian nationalists murdered Kurek’s stepfather. This did not prevent Kurek from continuing to help her Jewish friends, even after she had begun to work in a local oil refinery, which was located right next to a forced-labor camp for Jews. In early 1944, after the gradual liquidation of the Jews in the camp had begun, Kurek helped a number of Jews escape from the camp, some of whom she also hid in her home for a while. The Jewish refugees who were fortunate enough to find asylum in Kurek’s home were the five members of the Rajner family, Moshe Blam and a young man named Yzydor Majer. Although they remained in her home for only a short time, the police got wind of their presence there. The police search did not uncover the presence of the Jews hiding there. Nonetheless, Kurek was arrested, beaten, and brutally interrogated. The seven Jews who succeeded in fleeing to the nearby forest were liberated in the summer of 1944 by the Red Army. Moshe Blam, one of the Jews who owed their lives to Kurek’s courage, married her after the war. Kurek and Blam immigrated to Israel, and after she converted to Judaism, she took on the name Sara. On March 24, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Sara-Helena Blam (née Kurek) as a Righteous Among the Nations.