(née Janina Siestrzewitowska; 1900–1988), later known as Anna Borkowska,[1][2] was a Polish cloistered Dominican nun who served as the prioress of her monastery in Kolonia Wileńska near Wilno (now Pavilnys near Vilnius, Lithuania).
She initially sought to gain the support of the Wilno Catholic leadership, but they rebuffed her efforts out of fear that the Nazi German occupation forces would destroy church property and kill any Christians found to be aiding Jews.
[3] Acting on her own initiative, Mother Bertranda then took in 17 members of Hashomer Hatzair, a local Zionist group, and hid them within the grounds of her monastery.
Some of the Hashomer Hatzair members later decided to leave their monastery hideout and to return to the Jewish Ghetto in Vilnius, where they organized an underground resistance movement, the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO).
In September 1943, Mother Bertranda was arrested by the Nazi German occupation authorities and sent to a labor camp at Pravieniškės near Kaunas.