Jacob David (Jakob Dawid) Gdanski was born in the industrial city of Lodz, the textile capital of Poland. David’s family owned a shirt factory, and he became a textile engineer. In the 1930s, David met and married the talented and beautiful Helena Steyer. In late 1939 or 1940, Helena gave birth to a little girl, whom they named Nina. The small family moved to Kielce, to be close to Helena’s parents; David served briefly there as a policeman in the ghetto. In 1943, as the Nazis began to liquidate the Kielce ghetto, David, Helena and Nina escaped to Warsaw. Helena’s brother and sister-in-law, Stanley and Diana, supported them in hiding on the Aryan side. In May 1944, a Jewish informant led the Gestapo right to where David was hiding. The Nazis arrested David, Helena, and Nina, and killed them in prison shortly after.