Objects

Illustration of a fragment from Hanna Krall's reportage "Tam już nie ma żadnej rzeki" (Kraków 1998), in which Apolonia Machczyńska's cousin recounts the moment when her relative was executed. Apolonia was shot dead by a German policeman with whom she was involved. The man initially refused to carry out the sentence; he did so only under threat of a revolver aimed at his temple by a German lieutenant. The story of Apolonia Machczyńska-Świątek, a pregnant mother of three young children who was sentenced to death for hiding 25 Jews in her granary, became the inspiration for two other drawings by Jaśmina Wójcik from this series (MPOLIN-M1213 and MPOLIN-M1232). Just before her death, Apolonia Machczyńska-Świątek managed to save a young Jewish girl named Ryfka Goldfinger, to whom she gave her documents, thanks to which the girl was the only one from her family to survive. In 1997, Machczyńska was posthumously awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. MBK