The film “All Three Were Shot” presents the story of the Kamiński family from Sosnowica near Włodawa. Among the thousands of Poles who violated the German occupation ban on helping Jews, sanctioned by death, we find mother and daughter – Stanisława and Halina Kamińska. Stanisława Kamiński’s husband died during the defence campaign in September 1939. The heroic women were murdered by the German police together with a hidden man of Jewish origin.
Among the thousands of Poles who broke this occupation ban were a mother and daughter from Sosnowica near Włodawa, Stanisława and Halina Kamińska. Stanisława Kamiński’s husband died during the defence campaign in September 1939. The heroic women supported the Jewish man hiding in the forest for a long time. When the weather worsened, he found shelter at their house. When the Germans found his hiding place, they arrested all three of them and shot them on the same day. Józef Dawidek, who was staying at a nearby mill at the time, testified years later that he did not look out the window “to see the execution because Halina Kamińska was my school friend and I simply couldn’t bear to watch her die”.
Stanisława and Halina Kamińska were able to overcome their fear to help a man at risk of death at the hands of the German occupier. In this context, the words of Holocaust survivor Roman Frister, who absolved those who did not help, resonate particularly strongly: What right do I have to condemn them [Poles]? Why would they risk their own lives and their own families for a Jewish boy they did not know? Would I have behaved otherwise? I also knew the answer to this question. I would not have even lifted my pinkie to help them. Everyone was equally scared (quote from: Jan Żaryn, Polska wobec Zagłady [Poland in the face of the Holocaust], Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen, Warsaw 2019, p. 251).
Most of the thousands of people who helped Jews during the German occupation have never been honoured and will most likely never be publicly known. We want to commemorate them all with a series of films “Not only the Ulmas”. We invite you to watch the 15th episode of these IPN film miniatures dedicated to the Kamiński family – “All Three Were Shot”.