IRENA BOBOWSKA,
the Forgotten Heroine
In my work, I frequently address the stories of forgotten women*, anonymous heroines, because in our cultural sphere, history is traditionally written by the victors—men. The recorded narrative is a succession of wars, conflicts, and violence, dominated by heroes—generals, leaders, soldiers, popes. They are the ones memorialised in monuments and written about in historical records.
In recent years, Berlin has seen an ongoing debate about memorials, including the potential establishment of a monument to Polish victims of National Socialism. The discussions were lengthy and involved men in various positions—politicians, Bundestag representatives—but women*, particularly young women*, were absent from these conversations. My projects serve as a form of public civic dialogue about memorials in Berlin, approached through the lens of women* and their perspectives.
The central figure is Irena Bobowska, a poet from Poznań, who was executed by the Nazis in Berlin at the age of 22. For us, she symbolises all the young, talented women who were killed, destroyed, exiled during the war, and later erased from collective memory.
IRENA BOBOWSKA
(*3.9.1920 Poznań, +26.9.1942 Berlin, Plötzensee)
In September 1942, Irena Bobowska, a young poet from Poznań, was guillotined in Berlin's Plötzensee prison. She had been sentenced to death at the age of 22 for publishing the independence newspaper "Pobudka".
Born in Poznań, at the age of 2, Irena Bobowska suffered from Heine-Medina disease, which left her in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She was called Nenia by her family and friends. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 and the Nazis' entry into Poznań, Irena Bobowska began her underground activities. She joined resistance under the pseudonym "Wydra". From November 1939, she headed the editorial office of the underground magazine "Pobudka" ("Wake up call"). Irena was also involved in writing articles and reproducing and distributing the magazine - she used a wheelchair for this purpose. She also transported weapons in it.
On June 20, 1940, she was arrested by the Germans along with the other members of the editorial staff of “Pobudka” and imprisoned in Fort VII in Poznań. At that time, she could still send her family packages with dirty laundry and receive them filled only with bread, a few decagrams of fat, onions, cigarettes and sugar or sweet bread. Irena hid short messages in these packages, in which she wrote to her family that everything was fine. Later she was transported to prison in Wronki, where her wheelchair was confiscated, even though she could not walk due to a childhood illness. There, she was beaten, starved, and tortured. Despite her disability and brutal interrogations, Irena did not break down mentally, she found a way to maintain her humanity and inspire others, finding refuge in poetry.
She was then transferred to the prison in Berlin Spandau, then to the prison hospital in Alt-Moabit, Berlin and to women's prison on Barnimstrasse. On August 12, 1942, she appeared before a military court. During the trial, she was allowed to speak. Her statement lasted 30 minutes and did not contain a single word of justification or a request for clemency. Bobowska spoke about the time of partitions, Germanisation, the cruelty of the ongoing war. She received a death sentence, which was carried out by guillotine on September 26, 1942. She left behind prison poems and many drawings.
The symbolic and empty grave of Irena Bobowska is located in Poznań at the cemetery in Miłostowo. However, her remains have never been found. It is very likely that her body, like many other women, was taken after the execution to the Institute of Anatomy, where Dr. Hermann Stieve conducted dissections and research on the reproductive system of women in a state of stress. The remains of these women were cremated and the ashes were buried in the cemeteries: Parkfriedhof (Marzahn), Urnenfriedhof Seestraße (Berlin-Wedding), Südwestfriedhof Stahnsdorf and Friedhof Altglienicke. In 2016, Dr. Stieve's heirs found over 300 preparations from his dissection room with tissue samples of women murdered in the prison in Plötzensee in the family residence. The remains were buried in 2019 at the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin. However, it is also possible that the urn with Irena's ashes ended up in a partially anonymous burial plot at the Altglienicke cemetery, among 90 urns with ashes of people executed in Plöltzensee prison.
Wherever Irena Bobowska's ashes are, her memory exists in the spiritual, artistic and symbolic spheres beyond borders. This was one of the reasons why together with Ewa Maria Slaska and Agnieszka Glapa, we decided to permanently commemorate Irena, through nature and life - by planting a tree in her name in Berlin.
The origins
While working on the ONEPoznań platform on the occasion of the centenary of women's suffrage in Poznań (2018), I wrote, among other things, texts on historical women. I came across Irena Bobowska, I was fascinated by her biography and that's how it all started.
In 2019, I decided to use Irena's poetry in feminist activities and recall her brave figure. I read her most famous poem "Because I am learning..." during the performance "We are the resistance!", which I prepared for the demonstration on International Women's Day in Berlin (8.3.2019). It turns out that it is still relevant.
I also read the same poem on many other occasions, line ok May 8, 2021 during a ceremony to pay tribute to Polish soldiers at the monument to Polish liberators in Berlin Charlottenburg (Ernst Reuter Platz). The event was organized by PostKom, Antifa Westberlin and VVN BdA Berlin.
"We are the Resistance!" (Wir sind Widerstand!), performance, 8.3.2019
Photos: Gabriella Falana
“Żyć dla kogoś, to znaczy więcej,
niż umrzeć za kogoś.”
“To live for someone is more
than to die for someone.”
Irena Bobowska
The missing half of history
Project, 2022
The project and event series The Missing Half of History seeks to fill the gaps in Polish-German history by remembering women—forgotten heroines who have been erased from the pages of history. These Polish women fought for their rights alongside German women over 100 years ago, later became victims of war, and yet continued to fight for freedom. Many of them acted in Berlin or were executed there. This project aims to honor Polish women in Berlin who were persecuted, tortured, murdered by the criminal regime, and subsequently consigned to oblivion.
This initiative seeks to contribute to a balanced dialogue about history in relation to the present. How much can we learn from history, and how can we discuss it? Who were these women—Polish women who fought for freedom? How can we preserve the memory of forgotten heroines? How can shared historical debates and art foster deeper understanding and help prevent history from repeating itself?