User:AMM Pittsburgh/Maria Polaczkówna

Maria Polaczkówna (1878–1944) was a Polish-Ukrainian historian and archivist who worked at the Przemyśl city archives, which in 1951 became the Archives of Poland. She was hired to work at the Institute on 15 December 1940 but was dismissed on 14 April 1941. She was arrested for providing accommodation for secret activities. She died in captivity during the German occupation of Poland in 1944.

Biography

Maria was born into a patriotic family: her father, Adam, took part in the January Uprising and spent years an exile in France where he completed medical studies. In his absence, his family lived a very modest life in L’viv and his daughters – Maria and her younger sister Helena Polaczkówna, took on tutoring assignments to earn enough money to afford their education. Despite their beginnings, both sisters rose through the academic ranks with both earning their PhD.

Maria earned her doctorate in history. During the years before World War I, and then in the 1920s, she worked with Professor Eugeniusz Romer (Geographical Institute of L’viv University).

According to archives in Poland, Maria Polaczkówna was the first archivist to work with the city records in Przemyśl, Poland, when she began in 1917. After some years in Przemyśl, she returned to L’viv, where she taught history and geography at local schools until she retired in 1938. She was the author or co-author of geography textbooks and of a valuable monograph “Wahania klimatyczne w Polsce w wiekach średnich” (Climatic Fluctuations in Medieval Poland, L’viv, 1925).

Capture

During World War II, Maria and her younger sister Helena Polaczkówna lived together in L’viv (now Ukraine) at 29 Listopada Street (now Jevhena Konovaltsya Street). During the German occupation, Maria and Helena, became involved in educational, charitable and conspiratorial activities. The apartment that the sisters shared became a contact point for secret couriers and messengers of the Information and Propaganda Bureau of Home Army Headquarters, a system of asylum and safe places where illegal publications could be edited. Reportedly, it was through the carelessness of some co-workers that the Gestapo raided the building and arrested Helena on 27 April 1942. She was tortured and "finally murdered" in Autumn 1942.

After Helena's arrest, Maria left L’viv for Warsaw. After the Warsaw Uprising, on 5 August 1944, Maria was arrested on the street and jailed in a basement on Filtrowej Street. On the following day, she was driven to Zieleniak and placed in a sanatorium where she was last seen alive on 12 August, weak and exhausted.

Selected works

• Polaczkówna, Maria. “Atlasy krajoznawcze: przewodnik metodyczny: [województwo warszawskie].” (Sightseeing atlases: a methodical guide: [Warsaw province].)
• Polaczkówna, Maria. “Wahania klimatyczne w Polsce w wiekach średnich” (Climatic Fluctuations in Medieval Poland, L’viv, 1925).