Chana (Anna) Kowalska Winogora (1899–c.1942) was a

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

painter and journalist whose artworks reflect her rural origins. While in Paris during the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

, she was active in Jewish Communist organizations and wrote about art in local journals. Active in the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

, she was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

and deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

in July 1942.

Biography

Born in

Włocławek Włocławek (; or ''Alt Lesle'', Yiddish: וולאָצלאַוועק, romanized: ''Vlatzlavek'') is a city in the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship in central Poland along the Vistula River, bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park ...

on 4 November 1899, Chana Kowalska was the daughter of (1862–1925), a Zionist rabbi and politician. After turning to drawing when she was 16, from 1922 she studied painting in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. It was there she met her future husband, the writer Baruch Winogóra. The couple moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where they lived at 171 . Unable to afford her own studio, Kowalski painted in those of her friends. She became active in Jewish

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

organizations, participating in the Jewish cultural event at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition. She also contributed articles on art to

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

journals. Her artwork is appreciated as representative of a female artist living in Paris as a Jewish communist during the German occupation. Of particular interest is her painting ''Shtetl'' depicting one of the many small Jewish towns in eastern Europe which were destroyed by the Nazis in the 1940s. After being arrested by the Gestapo for her involvement in communist activities, Kowalska was first interned at the

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

. She was deported on 19 July 1942 to

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

where she was murdered by the Nazis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kowalska, Chana 1899 births 1942 deaths People from Włocławek County Jewish Polish artists Polish women journalists 20th-century Polish women writers Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Communist members of the French Resistance Jews in the French resistance Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp 20th-century Polish journalists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish women painters Jewish communists Jewish women painters Jewish painters Yiddish-language writers Jewish women writers