Jadwiga Apostoł

Jadwiga Apostoł
Jadwiga Apostoł at Auschwitz, 1942
Born	(1913-12-22)December 22, 1913 Nowy Targ
Died	February 2, 1990(1990-02-02) (aged 76) Nowy Targ
Nationality	Polish
Other names	Barbara Spytkowska
Known for	Underground Tatra Confederation

Jadwiga Apostoł, or Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska (December 22, 1913 – February 2, 1990) was a Polish teacher in the interwar period, underground activist during World War II, and writer in postwar Poland. Under the German occupation of Podhale, Jadwiga (nom-de-guerre Barbara Spytkowska) became the co-founder of the Polish resistance group called Tatra Confederation (Polish: Konfederacja Tatrzańska), a.k.a. Confederation of the Tatra Mountains, actively opposing the germanization of the Polish highlanders.

Apostoł survived Auschwitz and Malchow concentration camps as well as Leipzig Arbeitslager before returning to Poland. Ironically, after the Soviet liberation – as the only executive-member of the Tatra Confederation who was still alive – she was persecuted by the Stalinist regime and sentenced to five years in prison on trumped up charges. Released the same year thanks to an amnesty, she was permanently barred from her occupation as a teacher. Jadwiga Apostoł spent the rest of her life in Szczecin. She returned to Podhale shortly before her death and was buried in Nowy Targ.

Biography

Jadwiga Apostoł was born in Nowy Targ, the oldest of three children of Wincenty Apostoł, organist and choir master, and Magdalena née Czubernat, a dressmaker. In 1932 Jadwiga graduated from the Teachers' College and got a job at an elementary school in Nowogródek – far away from home. She came back from Kresy to Nowy Targ in 1939 only to witness the invasion of Poland. Immediately afterwards, her family began to smuggle Polish officers (who were escaping arrest) across the border to Slovakia and Hungary on their way to Polish military formations abroad.

In May 1941, Jadwiga joined the Tatra Confederation (KT); resistance group formed in Nowy Targ by Augustyn Suski and Tadeusz Popek against the Nazi Goralenvolk action aimed at germanization of the Polish highlanders. She became the KT executive secretary in charge of organizational and administrative duties. She wrote announcements for clandestine newsletters and typed all printed material. While her parents kept watch on the road, she operated a duplicating machine installed at an attic of their remote home.

Capture and persecution

Tatra Confederation rose in popularity with dozens of cells around Limanowa, Wadowice and Myślenice towns, and almost 500 members by the end of 1941. However, in January 1942 it was infiltrated by the Gestapo and broken up. Jadwiga escaped the arrest by chance, and went into hiding. She moved between Skomielna, Jordanów, and Bogdanówka near Myślenice where she was finally turned in by an informant and arrested along with her co-conspirator Tadeusz Popek on August 22, 1942. She was brought to the Palace Hotel – the Gestapo headquarters in Zakopane – and interrogated for three months. From there, she was transfered to prison in Kraków and a month later deported to Auschwitz where she worked for the Gardening Commando (prisoner # 26,273). On January 18, 1945 she was evacuated to Ravensbrück along with the rest of female prisoners and placed at the Malchow sub-camp. She escaped near Leipzig from one of the subsequent transports and survived the war.

Following World War II, Jadwiga held jobs in Nowy Targ and Szaflary. In 1949 she was arrested by the Ministry of Public Security along with several others and accused of plotting against Stalinism. She was sentenced to five years in prison, but released half a year later. Ostracized by the local authorities and unable to find work, Jadwiga moved away from Podhale to Szczecin. However, the persecution didn't stop there. She was forced to work as construction laborer for the next decade. In 1964 she married Ludwik Staniszewski, an office clerk. She lived and wrote memoirs in Szczecin until retirement. After her husband's death in 1985, Apostoł-Staniszewska moved back to Nowy Targ, where she died on February 2, 1990, at the age of 76.

Works

• Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska, Echa okupacyjnych lat (Echoes of Years of Occupation), Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw, 1970 reprinted in 1973, 322 pages, OCLC 3785812; memoir of the Tatra Confederation
• Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska, Nim zbudził się dzień (Before the Day's Outbreak), Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw, 1979, ISBN 83-205-3159-4, translated into German as Erinnerungen aus d. dt. Konzentrationslagern Auschwitz, Ravensbrück u. Majdanek; memoir of her concentration camps' imprisonment
• Jadwiga Apostoł, Ucałujcie polska ziemię (To Kiss the Polish Soil), relation of escape from the German transport. Unpublished
• Jadwiga Apostoł, Spotkania z przeszłością (Meetings with the Past), memoir of Stalinist persecution, 1945–1953. Unpublished

Further reading

• Daniel Strzałka, "Walce o Polskę wszystkie swe siły oddam", czyli rzecz o Konfederacji Tatrzańskiej. Redakcja, Komendant, Naczelnik, Marszałek. Józef Piłsudski i jego czasy. ISSN 1899-8348
• Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska, Echa okupacyjnych lat, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1973
• Sylwester Leczykiewicz, Konfederacja Tatrzańska, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1976