Zofia Kossak
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Zofia Kossak-Szczucka ( (also Kossak-Szatkowska); 10 August 1889 – 9 April 1968) was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded two wartime Polish organizations: Front for the Rebirth of Poland and Żegota, set up to assist Polish Jews to escape the Holocaust. In 1943, she was arrested by the Germans and sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, but survived the war.


Biography


Early life

Zofia Kossak was the daughter of Tadeusz Kossak, who was the twin brother of painter Wojciech Kossak, and granddaughter of painter Juliusz Kossak. She married twice. In 1923, following the death of her first husband Stefan Szczucki in
Lwiw Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
, she settled in the village of
Górki Wielkie Górki Wielkie is a village in Gmina Brenna, Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has a population of 3554 (2008). It lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. History The village was first mentioned in a Latin doc ...
in Cieszyn Silesia where in 1925 she married Zygmunt Szatkowski.


Activism

She was associated with the
Czartak Czartak () was a regional literary group in Poland, founded after World War I by Emil Zegadłowicz. Its most famous member was Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. Other members included Edward Kozikowski, Jan Nepomucen Miller and Janina Brzostowska. Czart ...
literary group, and wrote mainly for the Catholic press. Her best-known work from that period is ''The Blaze'', a memoir of the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1936, she received the prestigious Gold Laurel (''Złoty Wawrzyn'') of the
Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...
. Kossak-Szczucka's historical novels include ''Beatum scelus'' (1924), ''Złota wolność'' (Golden Liberty, 1928), ''Legnickie pole'' (''The Field of Legnica'', 1930), ''Trembowla'' (1939), ''Suknia Dejaniry'' (''The Gift of Nessus'', 1939). Best known are ''Krzyżowcy'' (''Angels in The Dust'', 1935), ''Król trędowaty'' (''The Leper King'', 1936), and ''Bez oręża'' (''Blessed are The Meek'', 1937) dealing with the Crusades and later ''
Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...
'', translated into several languages. She also wrote ''Z miłości'' (''From Love'', 1926) and ''Szaleńcy boży'' (''God's Madmen'', 1929), on religious themes.


World War II


Press activities

During the German occupation of Poland, she worked in the underground press: from 1939 to 1941, she co-edited the underground newspaper ''Polska żyje'' (''Poland Lives''). In 1941, she co-founded the Catholic organization ''Front Odrodzenia Polski'' (''Front for the Rebirth of Poland''), and edited its newspaper, ''Prawda'' (''The Truth''). In the underground, she used the code name ''Weronika''.


"Protest!"

In the summer of 1942, when the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto began, Kossak-Szczucka published a leaflet entitled "Protest," of which 5,000 copies were printed. In the leaflet, she described in graphic terms the conditions in the Ghetto, and the horrific circumstances of the deportations then taking place. "All will perish ... Poor and rich, old, women, men, youngsters, infants, Catholics dying with the name of Jesus and Mary together with Jews. Their only guilt is that they were born into the Jewish nation condemned to extermination by Hitler." The world, Kossak-Szczucka wrote, was silent in the face of this atrocity. "England is silent, so is America, even the influential international Jewry, so sensitive in its reaction to any transgression against its people, is silent. Poland is silent... Dying Jews are surrounded only by a host of Pilates washing their hands in innocence." Those who are silent in the face of murder, she wrote, become accomplices to the crime. Kossak-Szczucka saw this largely as an issue of religious ethics. "Our feelings toward Jews have not changed," she wrote. "We do not stop thinking of them as political, economic and ideological enemies of Poland." But, she wrote, this does not relieve Polish Catholics of their duty to oppose the crimes being committed in their country. She co-founded the
Provisional Committee to Aid Jews The Provisional Committee to Aid Jews ( pl, Tymczasowy Komitet Pomocy Żydom) was founded on September 27, 1942, by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz. The founding body consisted of Polish democratic Catholic activists associate ...
(''Tymczasowy Komitet Pomocy Żydom''), which later turned into the council to Aid Jews (''Rada Pomocy Żydom''), codenamed Żegota, an underground organization whose sole purpose was to save Jews in Poland from Nazi extermination. In 1985, she was posthumously named one of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Regarding Kossak-Szczucka's "Protest",
Robert D. Cherry Robert D. Cherry (born 1944) is an American academic who is professor emeritus at Brooklyn College, with a Ph.D. in Economics from Kansas State University received in 1968. Before retiring, he was Broeklundian Professor at Brooklyn College. A ...
and
Annamaria Orla-Bukowska Annamaria Orla-Bukowska is a social anthropologist at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków; and the Professor/Lecturer at the Center for Social Studies / Graduate School for Social Research of the Polish Academy ...
wrote in the introduction to ''Rethinking Poles and Jews'': "Without at all whitewashing her antisemitism in the document, she vehemently called for active intercession on behalf of the Jews - precisely in the name of Polish Roman Catholicism and Polish patriotism. The deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto precipitated her cofounding of Żegota that same year - an
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
(AK, Home Army) unit whose sole purpose was to save Jews."


Arrest

On September 27, 1943 Kossak-Szczucka was arrested in Warsaw by a German street patrol. The Germans, not realising who she was, sent her first to the prison at
Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation of ...
and then to Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp. When her true identity became known in April 1944, she was sent back to Warsaw for interrogation and sentenced to death. She was released in July 1944 through the efforts of the Polish underground and participated in the Warsaw Uprising.


Post-war

At the end of World War II, a communist regime began to establish itself in Poland. In June 1945, Kossak was called in by Jakub Berman, the new Polish Minister of the Interior, who was Jewish. He strongly advised her to leave the country immediately for her own protection, knowing what his government would do to political enemies, and also knowing from his brother,
Adolf Berman Adolf Avraham Berman (, 17 October 1906 – 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and communist politician. Biography Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), the younger brother of Jakub Berman. Berman attended the Unive ...
, what Kossak had done to save Jewish lives.''La maison brulée'' (''The burned house''). A sixteen-year-old voluntary helper during the Warsaw insurrection. Anna Szatkowska, Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc, CH-1007 Lausanne, 2005 (in French) Kossak escaped to the West, but returned to Poland in 1957. Kossak-Szczucka published ''Z Otchłani'' (''From the Abyss'', 1946), based on her experiences of Auschwitz. ''Dziedzictwo'' (''Heritage''. 1956–67) is about the Kossak family. ''Przymierze'' (''The Covenant'', 1951) tells the story of Abraham. Kossak-Szczucka also wrote books for children and teenagers, including ''Bursztyn'' (1936) and ''Gród nad jeziorem'' (''Settlement by the Lake'', 1938). In 1964 she was one of the signatories of the so-called Letter of 34 to Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz regarding freedom of culture. In 1982 the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem recognised Zofia Kossak as a
Righteous Among Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...
. In 2009, the National Bank of Poland issued a coin posthumously commemorating the work of Kossak, Irena Sendler and
Matylda Getter Matylda Getter (1870–1968) was a Polish Catholic nun, mother provincial of CSFFM (lat. ''Congregatio Sororum Franciscalium Familiae Mariae'') - Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary in Warsaw and social worker in pre-war Poland. In German ...
in helping Jews (see Żegota). In 2018 Zofia Kossak was awarded the highest Polish order, the Order of the White Eagle. Zofia's daughter, Anna Szatkowska (15 March 1928, Górki Wielkie – 27 February 2015), wrote a book about her experience during the Warsaw Uprising.


Works

She was the author of many works, a number of which have been translated into English. Selected works: * ''Beatum scelus'' * ''Beatyfikacja Skargi'' * '' Bez oręża'' (1937) (English title: ''Blessed are The Meek'', 1944) * '' Błogosławiona wina'' (1953) * ''Błogosławiony Jan Sarkander ze Skoczowa'' * ''Bursztyny'' * ''Chrześcijańskie posłannictwo Polski'' * ''Oblicze Matki'' (''Das Antlitz der Mutter'', 1948) * ''Dziedzictwo'' * ''Dzień dzisiejszy'' (1931) * ''Gród nad jeziorem'' * ''Kielich krwi - obrazek sceniczny w dwóch aktach'' * ''Kłopoty Kacperka góreckiego skrzata'' (1924) (English title: ''The Troubles of a Gnome'', 1928) * ''Król trędowaty'' (1937) (English title: ''The Leper King'') * ''Krzyżowcy'' (1935) (English title: ''Angels in the Dust'') * ''Ku swoim'' (1932) * ''Legnickie pole'' (1931) * ''Na drodze'' * ''Na Śląsku'' * ''Nieznany kraj'' (1932) * ''Ognisty wóz'' * ''Pątniczym szlakiem. Wrażenia z pielgrzymki'' (1933) * ''Pod lipą'' * '' Pożoga'' (1922) (English title: ''The Blaze'', 1927) * ''Prometeusz i garncarz'' * ''Przymierze'' (1952) (English title: 'The Covenant'', 1951) * ''Purpurowy szlak'' * ''Puszkarz Orbano'' * ''Rewindykacja polskości na Kresach'' * ''Rok polski: obyczaj i wiara'' * ''S.O.S. ... !'' * ''Skarb Śląski'' (1937) * ''Suknia Dejaniry'' (English title: ''The Gift of Nessus'') * ''Szaleńcy Boży'' (1929) * ''Szukajcie przyjaciół'' (1933) * ''Topsy i Lupus'' (1931) * ''Trembowla'' * ''Troja północy'' with
Zygmunt Szatkowski Zygmunt, Zigmunt, Zigmund and spelling variations thereof are masculine given names and occasionally surnames. People so named include: Given name Medieval period * Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548), Zygmunt I Stary in Polish, King of Poland and Gr ...
historic novel about Polabian Slavs * ''W Polsce Podziemnej: wybrane pisma dotyczące lat 1939 - 1944'' * ''Warna'' * ''Wielcy i mali'' (1927) * ''Wspomnienia z Kornwalii 1947-1957'' (2007) * ''Z dziejów Śląska'' * ''Z miłości'' (1925) * ''Z otchłani'' (1946) * ''Złota wolność'' (1928)


See also

* Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz * Polish culture during World War II * Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska * Magdalena Samozwaniec


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External links

*
Foundation of Zofia Kossak-Szczucka


– her activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kossak-Szczucka, Zofia 1889 births 1968 deaths People from Puławy County People from Lublin Governorate Polish historical novelists Polish resistance members of World War II Polish Roman Catholics Female resistance members of World War II Roman Catholic writers Catholic Righteous Among the Nations Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Polish Righteous Among the Nations Warsaw Uprising insurgents Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Warsaw Ghetto inmates Polish women novelists 20th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish women writers Women historical novelists Polish women in World War II resistance Żegota members Female anti-fascists