Maria Kociubska




Before her arrest, Maria Kociubska, born in Poland on 10-13-1887, is married to a major in the Polish army who is killed in Katyn. In July of 1941, at the age of 53, she is arrested by the Gestapo in Warsaw and deported to Ravensbrück. In the autumn of 1943, the SS deports her to Majdanek and afterwards, in April of 1944, to Auschwitz. Here she becomes very sick with typhoid. When the SS dissolves the camp at the approach of the Red Army, Maria Kociubska arrives back at Ravensbrück. She dies there in the winter, on 2-11-1945, from exhaustion: despite a high fever she is forced by the SS medical personnel to carry bricks.
She was considered a quiet and pleasant person, was culturally educated and well travelled. Encouraged by Irene Szyciowskia, she shared her travel memories with her friends in the block. She relived them in her thoughts during the long hours of role call and in this way kept herself and others on their feet. Her poems often speak humorously or with scathing derision of the SS and the watch personnel.
The spread of lice was unstoppable in the camp due to the close quarters and catastrophic hygenic conditions. They were dangerous because they carried typhoid. With the daily ritual of seaching each others bodies and clothing for lice, the women attempted to keep this plague in check. However, grim humor was often the only thing that helped.
This way of dealing with the monstrosities of everyday life in a concentration camp had an enormously important function as a valve. Laughing can be seen as a physical process - a tightening of the muscles, a shaking of the body - with which in a kind of an analogical form a compensation for catastrophe, a kind of a counter spell is created.

Constanze Jaiser



Nina Jirsikova:
Lice Search.

Ravensbrück Memorial.
Shelf mark: V785E1

Maria Hispanska:
Looking for Lice.
Ravensbrück Memorial.
Shelf mark: V773E1
  
J. S. Pietkiewicz:
Girl Scratching Herselve.
Ravensbrück Memorial.
Shelf mark: V837E2
  
Maria Hispanska:
Woman Doing a Pedicure.
Ravensbrück Memorial.
Shelf mark: V877E2
  
Nina Jirsikova:
Checking for Lice.
Ravensbrück Memorial.
Shelf mark: V784E1
  

Voices from Ravensbrück  ©  Pat Binder