Teresa Lubieńska

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Teresa Maria Apolonia Łubieńska , née Skarżyńska , ( April 18, 1884 – May 25, 1957 ) was a Polish resistance fighter and social activist . In 1957 she fell victim to a fatal attack in a London underground station; the perpetrator could not be identified.

biography

Coat of arms of the Łubieński family

Teresa Skarżyńska, called "Rena", was the daughter of Wacław Skarżyński and Krystyna née Gołębiowska and was born on the Rybie estate near Kutno . Her family belonged to the Polish nobility . She graduated from a nun-run school in Jarosław and then studied literature and history in Kraków at the Jagiellonian University and art at the Adrian Baraniecki College . In 1902 she married the nobleman Edward Łubieński (1871 - 1919). In 1906 a son, Stanisław, was born on the Łubieński estates in Łaszów , and in 1910 their daughter Izabela.

In 1918 the lands were confiscated, and her husband Edward Łubieński fell in the 1919 Polish-Soviet War . Countess Łubieńska moved to Warsaw with her children and became involved in the Red Cross . Her son Stanisław was killed in 1939 when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland. Łubieńska then joined the resistance against the German occupation of Poland : she became a lieutenant in the Polish Home Army and a member of the underground organization “Muszkieterowie” (“Musketeers”). Her alias was "33". After the occupiers tracked down escaped prisoners and the group was busted, she was arrested on November 11, 1942 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp on May 13, 1943 . On August 14, 1944, in view of the approaching offensive, she was taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp on the first transport .

On April 25, 1945, Teresa Łubieńska was taken to safety in Sweden by the Red Cross. After the end of the war she moved to London, where her daughter, who had worked in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris before the outbreak of the war , was already staying. She again worked with the Red Cross, helping concentration camp prisoners obtain compensation. She was held in high esteem in the London Polish community.

In May 1957, Łubieńska reported to the police that she felt threatened. On May 24, she was on the London Underground on her way home from a meeting in the Borough of Ealing . She got off at the deserted Gloucester Road station . There she was attacked and seriously injured with five stab wounds. An underground worker found them after hearing their loud cries of "bandit, bandit, I've been stabbed." She was taken to St Mary Abbot's Hospital in Kensington , where she died. She was 73 years old. Teresa Łubieńska was buried on June 1, 1957 in Brompton Cemetery . Posthumously she was honored with the Golden Cross of Merit with Swords of the Republic of Poland .

The investigation into this crime dragged on for years. The British police launched extensive press campaigns and questioned around 18,000 witnesses. However, the perpetrator could not be identified. A robbery and murder , for example, was ruled out because Łubieńska's handbag had not been stolen. Teresa Łubieńska's daughter, Izabela, was convinced in an interview that the murder was a political one. Days before the murder, she herself had the feeling that a "tragedy" was imminent. Since Teresa Łubieńska was aware of political secrets through her past and activities in London, the police considered, among other things, that a wartime collaborator feared being betrayed by her and killed her as a result.

web links

itemizations

  1. ↑ Rainer Berg: Baza osób polskich: Łubieńska, Teresa. In: baza-nazwisk.de. Retrieved December 3, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Tomasz Muskus: Hrabina Teresa Łubieńska – zapomniany anioł z Ravensbrück. In: britishpoles.uk. 17 November 2020, retrieved 3 December 2021 (Polish).
  3. ↑ Kulisy zabójstwa hrabiny Teresy Łubieńskiej. In: rytmwarszawy.pl. Retrieved 4 December 2021 (Polish).
  4. ↑ The murder of Countess Lubienska, 1957. In: btp.police.uk. Retrieved December 3, 2021 (English).
  5. ↑ a b c d Rose Staveley-Wadham: The Murder of Countess Teresa Lubienska - An Unsolved Underground Mystery. In: blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. 12 November 2019, accessed 4 December 2021 (English).
  6. ↑ Teresa Łubieńska. de.findagrave.com, accessed 3 December 2021 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Łubienska, Teresa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Łubieńska, Teresa Maria Apolonia (full name); Skarżyńska, Teresa (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish resistance fighter and social activist
BIRTH DATE April 18, 1884
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1957
PLACE OF DEATH London