Helena Schweizer (née Horowitz) was born in Mikulińce in Podolia. After the death of her parents and sister, she escaped from a forced labour camp in the Tarnopol Province in July 1943. She hid in a forest and was eventually brought to the home of Michał Ogórek, a friend of Jan Misiewicz, who hid her and several other people in a pit beneath the ruins of a castle near Mikulińce. She remained hidden there until 23rd March 1944.
Following liberation, Helena returned to Mikulińce and reunited with a family whom she knew, who had fled eastward due to the siege of Tarnopol. From there, she went to Lwów, where she attended a nursing school. After the war, she arrived in Bytom, Poland, and joined a Zionist association, initially working in a candy packaging operation and, later, in the kitchen. With the group, she travelled to Wałbrzych, then moved through Bratislava, Vienna, and Sankt Marein in Austria, eventually reaching Italy. There, she and other emigrants were placed in Cinecittà near Rome.
In an attempt to reach Palestine, where her uncle, her only surviving relative, lived, she sailed from a port near Rome to Haifa. However, the ship was redirected by the British to Cyprus, where she was placed in a camp in June or July 1947. Due to her knowledge of English, she worked as a liaison between the camp's residents and the British authorities, and also worked in the camp's clinic. Her uncle from Palestine visited her there.
On 23rd January 1949, Helena arrived in Israel, where she was reunited with her uncle's family. It was in his home that she met her future husband, who had come to Palestine, in 1935, from Zduńska Wola. He had served in the military and was an active Zionist. In Israel, Helena worked as a nurse and had two sons.
