Teresa Dowgiałło

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Married couple Teresa and Tomasz Zan
Mansion Dūkšto dvaras (2016)
Teresa (right) with her children Tomasz and Helena

Teresa Helena Maria Dowgiałło , since 1901 Teresa Zan , (born November 20, 1884 in Griškiškė, † February 19, 1945 in Ravensbrück concentration camp ) was a Polish resistance fighter .

Life

Teresa Maria Dowgiałło was a daughter of the Polish nobles Kazimierz Przemysław Dowgiałły (1854-1893) and Antonina Justyna, née Biegańska (* 1859). In 1901 she married Tomasz Zan (1876–1950), owner of the Dūkšto dvaras estate in today's Lithuanian Rajongemeinde Ignalina , a grandson of the Polish poet Tomasz Zan (1796–1855). The son Tomasz (1902–1989) and the activist and writer Helena (1904–1996) emerged from the marriage.

Dowgiałło enjoyed a careful upbringing and education, spoke several languages ​​and played the piano, was patriotic and socially active. During the World War in 1917 she was a nurse in the First Polish Corps. Under the pseudonym "Mszaryna" she was active as commander of the Zarzecze district over 72 fellow students in the Polish military organization. For this activity she was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross V Class in 1922 and the Independence Cross with Swords in 1933. Until 1931 the family estate was managed by Dūkšto dvaras.

After the invasion of Poland , she joined the Home Army under the pseudonym "Anna" . In November 1941, she was from the Gestapo arrested in the notorious Warsaw prison Pawiak prison. In May 1942 she was transferred to Ravensbrück, where she had prisoner number 11272. She successfully tried to reduce the mistrust between the Polish and Russian inmates and showed the women the epic Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz , which she mastered by heart.

In the end, she succumbed to a phlegmon disease before she was liberated .

literature

  • Andrzej Prus Niewiadomski: Human fates: Teresa Zan and Maria Plater. In: Das Wort, Quarterly No. 65, Berlin Fall 2004, pp. 58–59.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Teresa Helena Maria Dowgiałło h. Zadora on Wielka genealogia Minakowskiego by Marek Jerzy Minakowski.
personal data
SURNAME Dowgiałło, Teresa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dowgiałło, Teresa Helena Maria (full name at birth); Zan, Teresa Helena Maria (full name since 1901)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Griškiškė
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1945
Place of death Ravensbrück concentration camp