Objects

The photograph of Fania (Fruma) Zajczyk, the mother of Szymon Zajczyk. Printed on silver-gelatin paper, the portrait shows a young woman in an elegant light-coloured dress with billowing sleeves, her hair combed into a smooth bun, looking boldly into the future.

The portrait was taken at the Atelier M. Pusch - Fotografia Teatrów w Warszawie (The Atelier of M. Pusch - Photography of Theaters in Warsaw), located at 1 Miodowa Street. Maurycy Pusch (1828-1902), a Warsaw lithographer and photographer, ran the studio between 1892 and 1902 (J. Białynicka-Birula, Pusch Maurycy, in: Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających (zmarłych przed 1966 r. (The Dictionary of Polish and Foreign Artists Active in Poland (Died Before 1966)), vol. VIII, Warsaw 2007, pp. 149-150).

Fania Zajczyk died in the Warsaw ghetto. From a letter by her daughter-in-law Natalia Zajczyk we learn more about the circumstances of her death: "My poor mother died on 3 October 41 in Gheta. If she had seen her funeral - she would have wept bitterly. On a small handcart, 6 corpses at once! That was the period when Jews were dying out in thousands from hunger and spotted fever. (...) 20 days after the funeral I fell ill with spotted fever. Probably I got it from Mum" (A letter from Natalia Zajczyk to Mrs Czerniakowa of 23 September 1945, MPOLIN-A31.2.2).

Renata Piątkowska