Objects

Portrait photograph of Fania (Fruma) Zajczyk

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

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Information about the object
Object type
photography
Time of creation / dating
20th century
Created place
Warszawa (mazovian province)
Technique
silver gelatin print
Material
photographic print paper
Keywords
Copyright status
the object is not protected by copyright law
Owner
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Identification number
MPOLIN-A31.3.1