Zofia Pociłowska-Kann

03.03.1920 (Charkow) – 08.05.2019 (Warsaw) Sculptor

Ravensbrück: 23. September 1941– 28. April 1945

Among many monuments set up in different locations in Poland one is of particular meaning. It is the one dedicated to the prisoners of Pawiak and located in the prison courtyard.

Zofia Pocilowska was born on March 3, 1920 in Charków.

In January she joined the Union of Armed Struggle (Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej) and started her underground courier activity first in Warsaw and later in the territory of General Governorate (Lublin, Zamocz, Naklo, Siedlce).

Arrested on March 19, 1941 near by Warsaw, by Lublin Gestapo was transported to Pawiak prison and next to the prison in Lublin Castle. After brutal investigation she was sentenced to death.

On September 23, 1941 she was transferred with other prisoners to Ravensbrück concentration camp.

There she made her first attempts at sculpting and created many miniature sculptures which were gifts to her co-prisoners. The sculpting stuff she used were toothbrush handles.

She returned from the concentration camp to Warsaw on 15 may, 1945. There she enrolled in the Sculpture Department of the Academy of fine Arts, which she graduated from in June 1954.

She continued sculpting, the art she caught the bug in the camp, till the end of her life. Among many monuments set up in different locations in Poland one is of particular meaning. It is the one dedicated to the prisoners of Pawiak and located in the prison courtyard. Sculpting was not her only artistic activity. She was also a painter and a poetess.

Zofia Pocilowska-Kann died on May 8, 2019 in Warsaw at the age of 99.