Irena Scheur-Sawicka (August 18, 1890August 1 or 4, 1944) was a Polish archaeologist, ethnographer, and educational and communist activist. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she joined the

Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party (, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 to form the Polish United W ...

. She was active in the

Polish resistance during World War II In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front (damaging or destroying 1/8 of all rail transports), and pro ...

and, together with

Żegota Żegota (, full codename: the "Konrad Żegota Committee"Yad Vashem Shoa Resource CenterZegota/ref>) was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland (), an underground Polish resistance organization, and part of th ...

, in helping Jewish refugees from the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. She died in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

Biography

Scheur-Sawicka was born in in a family of

Polish landed gentry Polish landed gentry (, singular: , from ''ziemia'', "land") was a social group or class of hereditary landowners who held manorial estates. Historically, ''ziemianie'' consisted of hereditary nobles (''szlachta'') and landed commoners ( ''km ...

. Her father, Jan Scheur, was a French émigré from

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

; her mother was Maria ''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Włodarkiewicz. She studied with private tutors and in small courses organized for women in Kraków and Warsaw. She quickly became engaged in educational activism, teaching street children. From 1915 she was married to archaeologist . They had no children. By the end of World War I, in 1916, after failing to return from Minsk to Warsaw, she and her husband found jobs in Polish-expat organizations in Moscow and later engaged in archaeological expeditions in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

, (including

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

in 1916–1918). After returning to newly independent Poland in 1918, she was active in organizations providing education to adults and accompanied her husband in his archaeological research, taking several courses in archaeology offered by the

Warsaw Scientific Society Warsaw Scientific Society (Polish: ''Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie''; TNW) is a Polish scientific society based in Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city o ...

. From the early 1920s she worked as a

conservator-restorer A conservator-restorer is a professional responsible for the Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage, preservation of artistic and cultural artifacts, also known as cultural heritage. Conservators possess the expertise to preserve cultural ...

for the Polish government and published several scientific articles. From 1922 to 1927 she was also a secretary of the Polish Prehistorical Society (). In the late 1920s her focus shifted from archaeology to education. She was involved in a number of organizations and institutions focused on adult education, such as the Institute for the Education of Adults () and the 3rd Center of the Education for the Adults (). In the 1930s she became involved with the work of the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

. Following the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, she became active in the non-violent Polish resistance efforts, such as the

underground education Underground education or clandestine education refers to various practices of teaching carried out at times and places where such educational activities were deemed illegal. Examples of places where widespread clandestine education practices took ...

and rescue of Jews (from the

). She has been described by

Adolf Berman Adolf Avraham Berman (; 17 October 1906 – 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and communist politician. Biography Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), the younger brother of Jakub Berman. Berman attended the Univ ...

as a prominent member of

.Jewish Resistance: Konrad Żegota Committee
Jewish Virtual Library In 1942, she joined the newly founded

, where she was a high-ranking official in the

Żoliborz Żoliborz () is one of the northern dzielnica, districts of the city of Warsaw. It is located directly to the north of the Warszawa-Śródmieście, City Centre, on the left bank of the Vistula river. It has approximately 50,000 inhabitants and is ...

and

Mokotów Mokotów () is a district of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It is densely populated, and hosts many companies and foreign embassies. Only a small part of the district is lightly industrialised (''Służewiec Przemysłowy''), while the majori ...

districts and active in providing supplies to the partisans of

Armia Ludowa The People's Army (AL; ; ) was a communist partisan force of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) active in Occupied Poland during World War II from January to July 1944. It was created on the order of the Soviet-backed State National Council to figh ...

. She died in the first days of the

, killed by stray German gunfire; her date of death is given as either August 1 or August 4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawicka, Irena 1890 births 1944 deaths 20th-century Polish archaeologists 20th-century Polish educators Polish communists Polish people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust Polish women in World War II resistance Polish women archaeologists Polish civilians killed in World War II Deaths by firearm in Poland 20th-century women educators Żegota members