One hundred anniversary of birth of Jan Dobraczyński

KD, 16 November 2016
The celebrations of one hundred anniversary of birth of Jan Dobraczyński- a writer, publicist, national camp activist, who took part in the action of saving Jewish children during the war- began on 19th April at the Museum of Independence in Warsaw. In 1994 Jan Dobraczyński was honoured as the Righteous Among the Nations.

Mirosława Pałaszewska inaugurated the celebrations with her lecture titled “Jan Dobraczyński and helping Jews”. On the basis of the writer’s diaries and his co-workers’ (Jadwiga (Jaga) Piotrowska, Irena Sendlerowa among them) memories, she reconstructed the course and scale of the help given to the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto and the role of the monastic congregations in this action.

The second part of the meeting consisted in screening the film “W cieniu nienawiści” (“In the Shadow of Hatred”), which was produced in 1986 and its screenplay was based on the writer’s book “Ewa”. Jadwiga Piotrowska was the prototype of the main character, Zofia. The action of the film takes place in the occupied Warsaw. Zofia works in the office which takes care of the orphans. She happens to meet a Jewish woman named Róża, who asks her a favour. Zofia lets her daughter, a 10-year-old Ewa, stay in her house.

Łukasz Kadziński, a catholic priest and the writer’s grandson, took part in the meeting.
Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Jana Dobraczyńskiego (Jan Dobraczyński’s Friends Associacion), the organizer of the celebrations, invites for a requiem mass for the writer; the mass will take place at the Visitationist Church in Warsaw (Krakowskie Przedmieście 34) on Tuesday, 20th April at 7:00 pm.