Objects

A rejected version of the illustration for Maria Zarębińska-Broniewska's short story "Pelasia" from the edition in the book "Ręka umarłej" (Hand of a Deceased). The heroine of the story, Pelasia, presumably based on a real person, was an Auschwitz prisoner who worked in the hospital barracks. She was a cleaner, but her duties included not only cleaning, but also caring for the sick. She failed to give water to one of the sick woman lying in the room who was begging for a drink (she was under the care of another cleaner absent from the barracks for some time and in conflict with Pelasia); the patient died. When Pelasia was ordered to help remove the body, she discovered that the woman begging for water was her mother.

In the book, the story opens with an illustration in which a number of bodies are visible, painted similarly to the mother's body in the present work.

PK