Shortly after the German Wehrmacht occupied Kraków in September 1939, Helena Krywaniuk had to abandon her pharmacy degree. She found a position as an intern at Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s Pod Orłem Pharmacy (Eagle Pharmacy) in the Kraków district of Podgόrze in December 1941. The pharmacy was located inside the ghetto, where more than 18,000 Jews had been interned since March 1941. Pankiewicz and his employees received exceptional permission to enter the ghetto. The staff at the pharmacy witnessed the ghetto inmates’ mistreatment by the occupiers on a daily basis.
Up to the ghetto’s liquidation in 1943, Krywaniuk and other staff members supported the persecuted Jews, although doing so was punishable by death sentence. Krywaniuk provided those in need with medications and food. She delivered messages between ghetto inmates and their family members hiding outside the ghetto. Aside from that, Krywaniuk obtained forged documents for them and passed on information. After the war, Krywaniuk continued her studies. She worked in the Pod Orłem Pharmacy until 1950.