Irena Wygodzka with a delegation from Israel in Auschwitz

This is a picture of a delegation from Israel visiting Auschwitz in 1963.

It was taken during the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. I am standing third the right.

In 1963 my cousin from Israel, Fredka, visited us. She had run away from Poland during the war, to Hungary and later went from Hungary to Palestine. She came for the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

At that time you could already sense anti-Semitic feelings, the number of people who were allowed to come for the celebrations from Israel was limited.

But there was a delegation from Israel. It included Gideon Hausner, Eichmann's prosecutor, Rabbi Goren, people from the Israeli Embassy. I went to Auschwitz with them. It was the first time I was in Auschwitz.

My husband and I never concealed our identity. My husband wrote about Jewish issues, about the Holocaust. Everyone knew he was a Jew.

Our friends were also Jewish, but we were in touch with some Poles as well. My husband was in the Polish Writers' Association, so he knew lots of writers.

We talked about the Holocaust with our friends. Whatever we talked about, we'd always go back to the war.