Vale Anna Mieszkowska (1958-2025)

Redakcja, 5 February 2025

With deep sadness, we received the news of the passing of Anna Mieszkowska - writer, theatre scholar, journalist, and documentarian, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) Archive staff member and the author of books dedicated to artists such as Marian Hemar, Fryderyk Jarosy, Eugeniusz Bodo, Hanka Ordonówna, as well as the famous first biography of Irena Sendler. Anna Mieszkowska passed away on 13th January 2025, in Warsaw. In recent years, she also worked with the POLIN Museum, including as a consultant on a study of Janina Rechtleben-Wojciechowska and as a guest on a program about Mieczysław Fogg. In bidding farewell to Anna Mieszkowska, we recall these contributions on our "Polscy Sprawiedliwi" portal.

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Anna Mieszkowska (née Siwek) was a graduate of the Faculty of Theatre Studies at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Higher School of Theatre in Warsaw, which she completed in 1984. She focused on documenting the theatrical activities of Polish artists abroad.

She published works such as Za dawno, za dobrze się znamy. Piosenki Mariana Hemara (co-authored with Włada Majewska, Polish Cultural Foundation, London 1997), Ja, kabareciarz. Marian Hemar od Lwowa do Londynu (MUZA Publishing, Warsaw 2005), and Jestem Járosy! Zawsze ten sam… (MUZA Publishing, Warsaw 2008).

Her publications can be found in journals such as Pamiętnik Teatralny and Archiwum Emigracji. She also wrote theatrical entries for encyclopedias and dictionaries, including the Słownik Biograficzny Teatru Polskiego [Biographical Dictionary of Polish Theatre] and the Polski Słownik Biograficzny. Mieszkowska was a frequent guest on literary-musical Polish Radio programs.

Anna Mieszkowska's Biography of Irena Sendler

W 2004 r. opublikowała w Wydawnictwie MUZA pierwszą biografię Ireny Sendlerowej pt.: Matka dzieci Holocaustu. Historia Ireny Sendlerowej. Książka ukazała się jeszcze za życia Ireny Sendlerowej i była przez nią autoryzowana. „Można tę książkę traktować jako rodzaj autobiografii Sendlerowej. Trzymała panią Mieszkowską żelazną ręką”, mówił prof. Michał Głowiński, który jako dziecko ocalał z getta warszawskiego z pomocą Ireny Sendlerowej i jej współpracownic (cytat za: A. Bikont. Sendlerowa. W ukryciu, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2017).

In 2004, Anna Mieszkowska published the first biography of Irena Sendler, entitled Matka dzieci Holocaustu. Historia Ireny Sendlerowej (Mother of the Holocaust Children: The Story of Irena Sendler) through MUZA Publishing. The book was published while Irena Sendler was still alive and was authorised by her. "You can treat this book as a kind of autobiography of Sendler. She held tight control on Ms. Mieszkowska," said Professor Michał Głowiński, who, as a child, was saved from the Warsaw Ghetto with the help of Irena Sendler and her co-workers (quote from A. Bikont, Sendlerowa. In Hiding, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2017).

In the following years, Anna Mieszkowska published revised and expanded editions of this book:

second edition (revised): The Children of Irena Sendler, Wydawnictwo MUZA, Warsaw, 2011.
third edition (expanded, revised, and supplemented): The True Story of Irena Sendler, Wydawnictwo Marginesy, Warsaw, 2014.
fourth edition (supplemented): The History of Irena Sendler, Wydawnictwo Marginesy, Warsaw, 2018.

Ten years after the first edition - in a new, expanded, revised and supplemented version, enriched with photos and previously unpublished documents - the author also presents the life of Irena Sendler from a personal perspective. This was primarily thanks to the memoirs of Sendler's daughter, Janina Zgrzembska, who became involved in the work on the book.

"The conversation with Janina Zgrzembska, Irena's daughter, which begins this book, was prompted by questions from people who, after reading 'The Mother of the Holocaust Children: The Story of Irena Sendler' (Muza 2004) and 'The Children of Irena Sendler' (Muza 2009), felt that there was a lack of biographical information of a family nature. I also tried to clarify doubts raised by attentive readers. I also managed to establish and verify several facts that were omitted in earlier biographies," wrote Anna Mieszkowska in the introduction to the 2014 edition.

Translations of the book about Irena Sendler have been published in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, France, and Italy, as well as in Israel, the United States and Brazil. Based on the book The Mother of the Holocaust Children: The Story of Irena Sendler, a feature film was made, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (released in Poland as The Children of Irena Sendler), directed by John K. Harrison, with Ann Paquin in the leading role.

In recent years, Anna Mieszkowska has also worked with the POLIN Museum, as a consultant on the story of Janina Rechtleben-Wojciechowska, which we published in the thematic section about Jews who helped other Jews on the "Aryan side". Thanks to the help of Anna Mieszkowska, an staff member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) Archives, we managed to obtain previously unpublished photographs of Janina and her partner, Fryderyk Járosy, which were in the PAN Archives.

As a documentarian, specialising in cabaret and theatre from the interwar period, she was also a guest on a multi-episode broadcast by the POLIN Museum about Mieczysław Fogg, a Righteous Among the Nations. The broadcast went to air on the thirtieth anniversary of the artist's death.

She passed away on 13th January 2025, after a long illness. We were still in contact in December regarding the planned honoring of Janina Rechtleben-Wojciechowska in Israel. Kind and always helpful - this is how we will remember Anna Mieszkowska. We extend our condolences to her family and friends.