Born in Zakopane in the year Poland regained its independence in 1918, Helena Marusarzówna is one of the heroes for whom both the locals and the Polish nation can be rightly proud of. The plucky Górale girl took to the Tatras like a duck to water, little knowing when she was still a novice schoolgirl skier that the mountains would offer her both great success and the ultimate final sacrifice. Helena Marusarzówna shot to fame between 1936 and the outbreak of WWII by claiming no less than seven major Polish skiing titles. A typically patriotic girl, Marusarzówna used her skills and knowledge of the mountains as a member of the Polish resistance during the German occupation, smuggling refugees and mail over the Carpathians and into Hungary. In March 1940 she was captured by the Hungarian police and handed over to the Gestapo. Tortured several times, she never gave a secret away and was finally executed the following year. Posthumously awarded the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Bravery, her body lies in St. Mary of Częstochowa Church’s Na Pęksowym Brzyzku cemetery, on the right close to the entrance.