It’s the end of 1939. Six-year-old Helena is living in the Praga district of Warsaw, next to the orangeade and beer factory owned by her dad. His best, most-trusted employee is a man called Kamil. There are three religious buildings nearby: a Catholic church, a synagogue and an Orthodox church. Helena thinks that Praga is protected by three Gods. Time will reveal how wrong she was. An excerpt from the book Kotka Brygidy [Brygida’s Cat], whose author, Joanna Rudniańska, has won the International Janusz Korczak Prize.

But the war changed Kamil most of all. The war turned Kamil into a Jew.

One morning, Helena saw Kamil through her bedroom window. He was walking towards the factory. In the middle of the courtyard, he stopped and looked around him, like someone who has suddenly found themselves in an unfamiliar place. And then Helena noticed the white armband on the sleeve of his brown overcoat. There was something on the armband, some kind of symbol or inscription, but Helena couldn’t see what it was.

She got dressed and went down to the kitchen for breakfast. Mum was sitting at the table, and she was smoking. That was strange too, because Mum never smoked in the morning. Stańcia was standing over the stove.

“Kamil has an armband on his sleeve,” said Helena. “Have you seen it, Mum?”

“You didn’t say ‘good morning’, Helena. And you shouldn’t pay attention to Kamil’s armband. It doesn’t mean anything,” Mum replied. “It’s just a piece of material, nothing more.”

“They’ve issued an order for them to wear armbands. They wanted them to be visible. They can’t even recognize them,” said Stańcia, putting the kettle on the stove.

“Sit down, Helena. Stań