Maria Kotarba (4 September 1907 — 30 December 1956) was a courier in the Polish resistance movement, smuggling clandestine messages and supplies among the local partisan groups. She was arrested, tortured and interrogated by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

as a

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

before being imprisoned in

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarn� ...

and then deported to Auschwitz on 6 January 1943. Maria Kotarba was recognised as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

on 18 September 2005 for risking her life to save the lives of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

prisoners in two

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

.Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority, Maria Kotarba
/ref>

Auschwitz concentration camp

Kotarba was born near Nowy Sącz in southern Poland (then in the

Austrian Partition The Austrian Partition ( pl, zabór austriacki) comprise the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Habsburg monarchy during the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. The three partitions were conduct ...

). After the

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in September 1939, Maria Kotarba, a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, witnessed the extermination of her Jewish neighbours near

Gorlice Gorlice ( uk, Горлиці, translit=''Horlytsi'') is a city and an urban municipality ("gmina") in south eastern Poland with around 29,500 inhabitants (2008). It is situated south east of Kraków and south of Tarnów between Jasło and Nowy S� ...

, where she lived, and vowed to aid any Jew she could. Arriving at Auschwitz in the winter of 1943 she was allocated the prisoner number 27995, and after a range of camp duties, in the middle of 1943 was assigned to ''Kommando Gartnerei'', the Gardening Commando labour squad. She worked in the confiscated gardens around the nearby village of Rajsko, involved in the cultivation of vegetables and other ancillary labours.The State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. James Foucar
Angel of Auschwitz honoured
2006 ( PDF 109.5 KB) at www.auschwitz.org.pl By the summer of 1943, the resistance movement in the camp became organised and brought Kotarba into their ranks. Her reputation as a skilled courier traveled with her from

. Maria was involved in smuggling food, medicine and messages from the outside resistance groups into the camp.

Friendships

In the camp, Kotarba met Lena Mankowska (née Bankier), deported to the camp from the Jewish

Ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

in Białystok. At registration, the prisoner-clerks registered Lena as a Polish political prisoner on account of her non-Jewish looks. The two women developed a deep and lasting friendship. Kotarba was aware of the other woman's perilous position and did all she could to help her as well as her sister, Guta, who arrived in Auschwitz from the concentration camp at

Lublin-Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...

with her friend Henia Trysk. Lena Mankowska referred to Kotarba as the "Mommy of Auschwitz" ( pl, Mateczka). As a courier, Kotarba delivered medicine for the prisoner-doctors and brought in other supplies, which they shared. She used her resistance contacts to have Lena Mankowska allocated to lighter duties when she fell sick, and cooked soup for her on a small stove in her block. In January 1945, the SS evacuated the camp through Birkenau deeper into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The two women arrived separately at Ravensbrück in open coal wagons. Kotarba found her Jewish friend almost dead in the snow and carried her to her own barracks.McDonough, Chris
"Maria Kotarba, Poland"
International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation In February 1945, the SS again moved the prisoners to the

Neustadt-Glewe Neustadt-Glewe is a German town, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim. History Neustadt-Glewe was mentioned for the first time in a document in 1248. Hans Axel Holm, a Swedish writer and journalist, documente ...

sub-camp, where the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

liberated the women in May 1945. After liberation, the two friends parted. Maria Kotarba returned to her home in Poland, remained single and died in 1956, aged 49, never having returned to the health she enjoyed before the war. She was buried in Owczary. Lena Mankowska married and settled in Great Britain. In 1997, Lena made an unsuccessful attempt to get Maria, her "Angel of Auschwitz",''Daily Express'', London
"My Angel of Auschwitz"
26 October 2005, p. 31 recognised as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Eight years later James Foucar successfully resubmitted her testimony, which was approved by Yad Vashem on 8 December 2005 based on Kotarba's qualifications for inclusion.James Foucar, homepage
Maria Kotarba: Righteous Among the Nations
/ref>

References

Resources

Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem
Maria Kotarba, Righteous Among the Nations
* The State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
"Angel of Auschwitz honoured"
2006 ( PDF 109.5 KB) at the State Museu
homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotarba, Maria 1907 births 1956 deaths Polish Righteous Among the Nations Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Ravensbrück concentration camp survivors Polish women in war People from Nowy Sącz Female anti-fascists