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Helen Ciesla Covensky, an abstract expressionist artist, died Nov. 20 of heart failure. A Bethesda resident, she was 82.
Born Hanka Ciesla in Kielce, Poland, she moved with her family to Sosnowiec, Poland, as a young child. Known as the prettiest girl in town, according to her family, she enjoyed an idyllic childhood until World War II broke out in Europe
Realizing that his daughter's green eyes and fluency in Polish and German would allow her to pass as a Polish Catholic, Covensky's father, a lumber businessman, obtained false papers for her. She and two other Jewish girls, also with false papers, made their way to Germany where they worked in a labor camp near Stuttgart.
Covensky's family described the young girl living the ruse, pretending to recite Catholic prayers every morning. She also passed food clandestinely to inmates in a nearby Jewish concentration camp.
After...