A WOMAN who showed great courage to survive being locked up in a Nazi war camp before starting a new life in this country has died.

Wladyslawa Kania, 85, of Campden Crescent, Dagenham, was born in Warsaw to father Wladyslaw and mother Leokadia.

Her early ambitions of being a nurse were shattered when World War Two broke out in 1939 and Germany invaded Poland.

On August 5, 1944, German tanks moved into her district and in the confusion Wladylawa was separated from the rest of her family, who died later that day at the hands of the Nazis in the largest single massacre in Poland’s history.

She ran away and joined the resistance fighters, and for 60 days endured danger and starvation, nursing wounded soldiers and providing comfort for those in their final hours.

Wladyslawa was captured by Nazis on October 3, 1944 and taken to Oberlangen prisoner of war camp in Germany where she spent the remainder of the war until the camp was liberated by the Polish Second Armoured Division.

She remained with the Second Armoured Division and was transferred to Edinburgh where she met her future husband, Zygmunt.

They married in 1948, and the following year their first son, Andrew, was born.

The young family moved to Campden Crescent, in 1950, where Zygmunt worked as a hairdresser and Wladyslawa supported the family by making handbags and working at a hospital.

Their second son, Richard, was born in 1957.

The couple remained happily married until 1982 when Zygmunt died at the age of 67.

Wladyslawa continued to care for others late into her life.

She died from heart failure and is survived by her two sons and four grandchildren.

Her funeral was at St Cedd’s in Goodmayes.