Maria Rutkowska-Kurcyuszowa |
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| Maria Rutkowska is born in Gidle, Polen in 1910. After graduation from school, she goes on to study economics in Warsaw. In 1934 she marries her first husband Tadeusz Rutkowsk with whom she has a daughter, Elzbieta. She works as a journalist, and even before 1939, Maria Rutkowska battles the Nazi regime and Italian fascism with reports from Poland. At the beginning of September 1939, she returns from a stay in Italy and takes part in the civilian defense of the city of Warsaw. In June of 1941, the Gestapo arrests her for articles written in Italy and because of a coded letter. Accused of "conspiracy," she arrives in Ravensbrück a year later, and moves on to various outer camps, among them the "Forest Den", an underground munitions factory. At the camp she writes by far the greatest number poems of all women prisoners writing poetry. At the same time, she is involved in the secretly organized lessons and teaches her Polish fellow inmates history and Polish literature. During the dissolution of the camp brought about by the Red Army's approach she is able to flee. She returns home; her husband was shot in the concentration camp Groß-Rosen. She gives up her occupation as a journalist and works as an economist for construction. | |
The entrance into the camp system meant a nightmarish loss of identity for those arriving. Will and personal integrity were to be broken by a complete physical and emotional subjugation. At the end of this degrading entrance procedure the women did not recogize themselves and each other anymore. These traumatic shock experiences turned the first days and weeks into a extremely dangerous time during which women were very susceptible to diseases and thoughts of suicide. Constanze Jaiser |
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Nina Jirsikova: Ravensbrück Prisoner. Ravensbrück Memorial. Shelf mark: V778E1 |
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Violette Lecoq: Dénuement. Ravensbrück Memorial. Shelf mark: V814-19E1 |
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France Audoul: Robbed and cut. Ravensbrück Memorial. |
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Anonymous: Examination. Ravensbrück Memorial. Shelf mark: V776BE1 |
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Violette Lecoq: Les âmes n'y sont plus (Detail). Ravensbrück Memorial. |
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Anonymous: 2 SS Women Driving Prisoners. Ravensbrück Memorial. Shelf mark: V850E2 |
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Elsbeth Zedner Arrival in Camp, Nov. 1941 Ravensbrück Memorial. |
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