The father of the family, Jerzy Aleksander Czulwik, fought in the Polish-Soviet war in 1919—1921. In 1928 he married Sabina Skomorowska. One year later their daughter Helena was born and in 1931 — Krystyna. Before the war the family lived in Nowogrodek Voivodeship.

Jerzy Czulwik was one of the Katyn Massacre victims and his wife and daughters were taken to Siberia, to Orsk located in the Southern Urals. In 1946 they came back to Poland.

In 1938 Helena started her diary, in which she collected her friends’ signatures. She had it while being in exile and after returning to the Motherland.