A Successful Public Fundraising Campaign - Teofila Kic’s Grave Restored in Przemyśl

Redakcja, 21 October 2026
Thanks to the efforts of many people, the grave of a "Righteous Among the Nations", whose courage and selfless efforts to help others exemplify the highest of human values, has been saved from removal. On 22nd September 2026, the restored gravestone of Teofila Kic was unveiled at the Main Cemetery in Przemyśl. Kic was a seamstress who, during the German occupation, provided shelter to her Jewish acquaintance Klara Pfeffer and her daughter Maria, who later became the distinguished psychiatrist Maria Orwid. The deteriorating grave, for which the necessary cemetery fees had not been paid, faced removal. Thanks to a public fundraising campaign, organised in January 2026, Teofila Kic’s burial place has been preserved and restored. Read the report on the unveiling ceremony and learn the story of her rescue efforts on our Polish Righteous portal.

“For many years, Teofila Kic’s resting place in the  Przemyśl Main Cemetery  remained almost forgotten. There was no one to regularly look after the grave. It was also at risk of being removed, because the cemetery fees had not been paid. The memory of a woman, who saved two lives, could have disappeared along with her burial place. [...]

Today, Teofila Kic’s grave can easily be found, and a plaque placed on it commemorates her story and her connection to Maria Orwid”, wrote the event organisers.

Efforts to preserve and restore the gravestone were undertaken by the National Museum of the Przemyśl Region, together with Alicja Zioło, a tour guide and researcher of women’s history, who has been studying the life of Maria Orwid.

The Society of Friends of Przemyśl and the Region organised a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of the conservation work, the creation of a memorial plaque and for the payment of the outanding cemetery fees.

The funds raised made it possible not only to restore and maintain Teofila Kic’s burial place, but also to preserve the memory of her actions during the German occupation.

The fundraising campaign eventually raised PLN 14,960, which was used to pay the outstanding cemetery fees for the burial plot in the Przemyśl Main Cemetery, to carry out essential conservation work on the gravestone and to install a memorial plaque.

The funds raised made it possible to not just restore and maintain Teofila Kic’s burial place, but to also preserve the memory of her deed during the German occupation.

 

Ceremony in Memory of Teofila Kic and Maria Orwid

The official unveiling of Teofila Kic’s restored gravestone at the Przemyśl Main Cemetery took place on 22nd September 2026. The ceremony was attended by representatives of local authorities, government and cultural institutions, the media and residents of Przemyśl.

Also present were students from the Complex of Electronic and General Education Schools, who have taken on the responsibility to care for and maintain Teofila Kic’s grave.

Following the ceremony at the cemetery, a memorial gathering was held at the National Museum of the Przemyśl Region. Among those attending were Barbara Eberl-Kaznowska, a relative of Teofila Kic, and Alicja Zioło, who was initiator of the restoration of the gravestone.

Those, who shared their memories of Professor Maria Orwid, included Dr hab. Maciej Pilecki, Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków, Ewa Domagalska-Kurdziel, Chair of the Council of the Professor Maria Orwid Kraków Foundation for the Development of Psychotherapy and Waldemar Rataj, Director of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II in Markowa.

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was represented by Olga Mielnikiewicz.

Teofila Kic’s restored grave is located in the Przemyśl Main Cemetery, on ul. Juliusza Słowackiego, section P33, row 6, grave no. 21.

 

Learn the Story of Teofila Kic on the Polish Righteous Portal

During the years of German occupation, Teofila Kic (1887–1960) helped her acquaintance Klara Pfeffer and her twelve-year-old daughter Maria, when they escaped from the Przemyśł ghetto. The women found shelter in her home at ul. Matejki 10 and, thanks to this help, they survived the Holocaust. 

After the war, Maria Pfeffer, known later as Maria Orwid, played a pioneering role in the development of Polish psychiatry - she was the founder of the  first, in Poland, psychiatric clinic for children and youth. She undertook research with the involvement of former Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners, which were among the first studies in the world to examine the psychological trauma experienced by concentration camp survivors. 

After 1989, she pioneered the provision of psychotherapy for Holocaust survivors. 

In 2008 r. Teofila Kic was posthumously honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

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