It is the most frequently reproduced photograph of Szymon Zajczyk. It was taken in the former atelier of Lipman Karp (1871-1924) in Skierniewice, which at that time was run by one of his daughters. Zajczyk is about 30 years old in the picture. Thus, he is already a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic, where he studied from 1923 to 1925, and of the University of Warsaw, where at first he studied mathematics at the Faculty of Philosophy (1922-1923, 1925-1927), and then, from 1927, art history within the same Faculty. In 1934, he received his degree, but most probably did not submit his master's thesis. At that time, Zaj Zajczyk was an active member of the Jewish Lands Society and cooperated with the Department of Polish Architecture of the Warsaw Polytechnic, headed by Prof. Oskar Sosnowski, which undertook a planned, large-scale action of inventorying synagogues. At the Central Office for Monuments Inventory he conducted photographic and descriptive inventories of synagogues. He published works on synagogue architecture, including Architektura barokowych bożnic murowanych w Polsce (The Architecture of Baroque Brick Synagogues in Poland), "Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury" (Bulletin of the History of Art and Culture) 1933, vol. 1, no. 4. It was published in 1939, in a notebook of the inventory of monuments in the Rawsko-Mazowiecki poviat, with a detailed description, illustrated with measurement drawings and photographs, of a wooden synagogue in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą, authored by Zajczyk, was his last article based on direct research (S. Zajczyk, Bożnica w Nowym Mieście nad Pilicą (The synagogue in Nowe Miasto on the Pilica River), in: Powiat Rawsko-Mazowiecki - Zabytki Sztuki w Polsce. Inwentarz topograficzny. (The Rawsko-Mazowiecki Poviat - Monuments of Art in Poland. The Topographic Inventory). Collective work p. VI vol. I, b. 1).
Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka dedicated their monumental work Bramy Nieba. Bóżnice drewniane na ziemiach dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (Heaven's Gates. Wooden Synagogues in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) to:
"To the memory of Szymon Zajczyk, born
born in 1901, murdered on 27 May 1944,
art historian and photographer, co-worker of the
Department of Polish Architecture of the
Warsaw University of Technology, an ardent researcher into the architecture
architecture and religious art of Polish Jews, a victim of the
Holocaust, this book is dedicated to him by the authors".
Renata Piątkowska