Barbara Schmid (née Guz) was born in 1942 in Mińsk Mazowiecki. Her parents were initially in the Warsaw ghetto. By 1942, they had moved to Mińsk Mazowiecki, her mother's hometown. Three months before Barbara's birth, the ghetto was liquidated, and her parents were separated. At the time, Barbara's mother was six months pregnant, and she learned that her husband was working in a factory in Mińsk Mazowiecki. Meanwhile, she was hiding in Kałuszyn. Eventually, they were able to reunite.
When Barbara was born, her mother left her on a staircase in Warsaw. She was subsequently raised in an orphanage run by Father Boduena, where no one knew about her Jewish heritage. The orphanage staff believed that she had been abandoned and baptised her as “Barbara Helena Bawarska”.
Several years later, Barbara's mother attempted to reclaim her, but the process was complicated by one of the nuns running the orphanage, who had become particularly fond of Barbara, who was then seriously ill, and did not want to let her go. When Barbara's mother, who had last seen her as a newborn, was finally allowed to see her, she was given an ultimatum - to identify her child from amongst the others. She remembered that her daughter had a birthmark on the back of her head. That detail is
probably when enabled Barbara Schmid to return to her family.
Barbara spent her early days back with her family in Mińsk Mazowiecki, later living in Warsaw. She learned of her Jewish heritage by accident when she was still a child. Later, Barbara's mother worked as a personnel officer at the Institute of Green Areas, but in 1948, she lost her job, which worsened her health. Her father, meanwhile, worked as the Chief Economic Editor for Trybuna Ludu and did not want to leave Poland.
Barbara Schmid graduated from a radio and television technical school and worked in that profession. Due to her association with an Italian working in the Chamber of Commerce, she was accused of espionage. This led to restrictions on her work in television. She wanted to leave the country and made her first attempt to leave Poland in 1970, traveling to Sweden. Later, with the help of a friend, she moved to Austria, where she worked in television and editorial offices.
In 1974, after receiving an Austrian passport, she visited Poland for the first time. She also frequently visited her parents in Romania, when her father worked as a correspondent. After retiring, Barbara Schmid worked in a nursing home, at a Jewish cemetery in Poland and in an archive, where she worked on Polish books. Currently, she is involved in social work with children in Austria.
