Children of Three Crosses Square is a poignant story about little escapees from the Warsaw Ghetto. These brave children survived the occupation through courage and determination. Their fate represents one of the few wartime stories with a positive ending.
It is necessary to save this history from being forgotten, and worth sharing widely.---Dr. Marek Michalak (Chair of the International Janusz Korczak Association, Children's Rights Ombudsman (2008-2018))

★ZAiKS Award (This award has been presented since 1988 to honor authors of books with Varsovian themes.)
★This extraordinary story reveals how children who had no right to live nevertheless refused to surrender, never lost faith, and ultimately triumphed over their enemy.

How does a ghetto orphan hunted by the Gestapo survive a war? The children of Three Crosses Square found a way – they sold newspapers and cigarettes, using their earnings to buy food, clothes and pay for lodging. They meticulously maintained cleanliness and neat appearances because their main customers were... Germans!

This true history recounts how a handful of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto utilized innate wit – daring to trade with Gestapo officers when survival was at stake. It's a poignant tale of young escapees from the ghetto whose courage and determination enabled them to endure the occupation. Their fates represent one of the rare wartime stories with a positive ending.

Dr. Marek Michalak, Chair of the International Janusz Korczak Association and former Children's Rights Ombudsman (2008-2018), affirms: "This story must be saved from oblivion. It deserves to be shared."

From 1942-1944, these child refugees operated under the principle that "the darkest place is under the lamp post," trading right in the heart of occupied Warsaw at Three Crosses Square. In this mortally dangerous location, with packs of cigarettes in their hands, the children daily fought for their lives. They outsmarted the Germans who bought cigarettes from them, never imagining these young vendors could be Jewish!

When the Warsaw Uprising erupted in 1944, these brave children remained in the capital, many joining the fight – girls serving as medics and messengers, boys taking up arms. After the uprising's defeat, the cigarette sellers were sent to POW camps where they witnessed war's end, later dispersing worldwide to Israel, Canada, the US, with some remaining in Poland.

Renata Piątkowska
A beloved and acclaimed author of children's and young adult literature in Poland. She has received numerous awards, including the Kornel Makuszyński Literary Award, the Astrid Lindgren Literary Award, and the "Comma and Period" Book Award. In recognition of her body of work, she was honored with the Maria Weryho-Radziwiłłowicz Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been decorated with the Infantis Dignitatis Defensori Medal for contributions to child rights protection and the Medal for Those Who Do Good. A recipient of the Order of the Smile, she is an admirer of fine painting and an passionate equestrian.