Sophie was born Selma Schwarzwald to parents Daniel and Laura in the industrial city of Lvov, two years before Germany invaded Poland. Daniel was a successful businessman who exported timber and Laura had studied economics. The Germans occupied Lvov in 1941. After her father's disappearance on her fifth birthday in 1941, Sophie and her mother procured false names and papers and moved to a small town called Busko-Zdroj. They became practicing Catholics to hide their identities. Sophie gradually forgot that she was Jewish. It was not until after their liberation and move to London that Sophie learned the truth about her past.
It puts me back in Busko-Zdroj. It puts me back in Busko Zdroj, it puts me...I guess one tends to think as you get older you kind of start thinking about these things. For many years, none of us thought of any of this. This was just shut away, put away and you, you just went on with your life. And so, what I think about it is a life in Busko-Zdroj. And always the sidewalk comes into my, my memory.
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