Erwina Barzychowska | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 16, 1929 |
| Died | October 20, 1939 (aged 10) |
| Known for | the youngest victim of the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig and the first child victim of World War II in Gdańsk. |
Erwina Barzychowska (born October 16, 1929 in Danzig, died October 20, 1939 in Danzig) – Polish child, victim of Nazi Germans, participant in the defense of the Polish Post Office in Danzig against the Nazi Germans. She was the youngest victim of the attack[1], and the first child victim of World War II in Gdańsk[2][3].
Life
editErwina Barzychowska was an orphan raised by the caretakers worked at the Polish Post, Jan Pipka (1872-1939) and his wife Małgorzata. Erwina studied at the Macierz Szkolna school in the Polish House at Wałowa street (named Wallgasse at that time) in Gdańsk (the area of the Free City of Gdańsk dominated by German Nazis).
On September 1st 1939, after Germany invasion of Poland, the Polish Polish Post Office in Danzig was besieged by the Nazi Germany armed forces - SS and German Police. The defense of the Danzig post office lasted many hours. Eventually, the Germans pumped gasoline into the building's basement and set it on fire. This forced the defenders to capitulate[4]. The wounded and burned defenders began to emerge from the building. Some of them were immediately shot or burned with flamethrowers by the attackers. Among those leaving the building was Erwina and her caretakers. The couple was very badly burned and the girl was also injured. The Germans grabbed the child from among the capitulating people, doused him with gasoline and set set on fire with a flamethrower. Erwina ran in pain around the courtyard, burning, until she lost consciousness. The youngest defender of the Gdańsk Post Office died seven weeks later in hospital[5]. She died, untreated by German doctors, in the Municipal Hospital in Gdańsk (she had second- and third-degree burns on her body)[6][7].
Grave of Erwina Barzychowska is in the Zaspa cemetery in Gdańsk, section II, grave 36.
No German law enforcement agency investigated her murder after the end of the war[8].
Fate of Erwina's caretakers
editJan Pipka exited the building on his own with burnt skin on his skull and died the next day (September 2, 1939). Małgorzata was heavily burned and blinded. The Germans put a rifle into Małgorzata's hand to take pictures of her. The photograph of her was later used by German propaganda. She was arrested by the Germans, tortured by the Gestapo and until 1943 was imprisoned in various prisons and camps in Gdańsk. She survived the war and died in 1963[9][10].
Commemorating
editStreet in Łostowice in Gdańsk is named after her. At school Zespole Szkół Łączności at Podwale Staromiejskie 51/52 street, there is a 172 cm high sculpture depicting Erwina Barzychowska. It shows a girl standing by the window with a teddy bear in her hand (this toy accompanied her until her death). The author of the work is Hanna Kostecka.
After the war, the wall at which the Germans placed the surviving postal workers was turned into a monument. At the height where the defenders rested their hands against the wall, symbolic hands of the defenders of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk were imprinted in specially placed bricks. Among these bricks, at a lower height than the others, there is a brick with a child's handprint in memory of Erwina.
References
edit- ^ britishpoles.uk 10-year-old Erwina Barzychowska: A tragic symbol of German brutality in WW2
- ^ Salon.24, Dziewczynka z tutką i anioły, nie licząc misia
- ^ Strefa historii, Położą misia spalonej Erwince Barzychowskiej
- ^ Gość Gdański, Wynocha z Gdańska!
- ^ Anna Putkiewicz, Obrońcy Poczty Polskiej. Walczyli zaciekle do końca, Polska Zbrojna
- ^ Lechia, Zanieś pluszowego misia na grób Erwiny Barzychowskiej
- ^ Gazeta Wyborcza, Erwinka była najmłodszą ofiarą ataku na Pocztę Polską w Gdańsku. Od tragedii minęły już 84 lata
- ^ Dieter Schenk, Poczta Polska w Gdańsku: dzieje pewnego niemieckiego zabójstwa sądowego
- ^ PIEPKA JAN, obrońca Poczty Polskiej w 1939, honorowy obywatel Gdańska
- ^ Zbrodnia nierozliczona