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Yes, I wanted to go to school. It was an ordinary Polish school, named after Stanislaw Staszic. A public school. With a good reputation. Next to it stood the Stanislaw Staszic School for Boys, and the entrance to that one was from Skarbkowska, and the entrance to the one for girls, because it was on the corner, was from either Podwale or from Strzelecki Square. The girls’ school faced the buildings of the fire brigade and the medical emergency service. And from there it was very near to Waly Gubernatorskie [Governor’s Embankment, raised in the 19th century in the place of the former city fortifications, a popular promenade] – something like an uneven levee. You climbed up steps. On the embankment was a very broad, huge chestnut-lined avenue. There was also a historical monument, the Baszta Prochowa [Gunpowder Tower, a powder magazine built in 1554-1556, presently the Architects’ House]. We called it the Powder House, but we never went there. And down there, quite far, it seems to me, on the other side, was a street.
My first reminiscences from school are that I was very happy to be assigned to ‘A’ class, because ‘A’ was for ‘angels,’ and ‘B’ was something bad. But when Mother took me to school for the first time, she met her former teacher there, a Mrs. Madejska, who advised her to move me to the ‘B’ class after all. And Mom moved me to ‘B’ right away.
Mrs. Madejska was my first-grade class tutor. My subsequent tutors included Gertruda Ajrhorn and Zofia Gubrynowicz. In fact, Zofia Gubrynowicz was my tutor for a longer time than Miss Ajrhorn. The latter, despite her German name, was a great Polish patriot. Most of the teachers were, I guess, Polish. But I was simply not interested in all that at that time. Miss Ajrhorn was an old maid, in a long black skirt and a long-sleeved blouse, with a stand-up collar and a beautiful gold cameo. It was actually her who infected me with love for literature. Mrs. Gubrynowicz, in turn, was married and had sons who sometimes visited her at school. She was very cheerful. We loved her very much. We feared the other one [Ajrhorn], and her we loved.
I was actually the best student. I had no difficulties whatsoever. My favorite subjects? Polish literature. I also liked history and natural science. There was even a period when I was wondering whether not to become a naturalist. I had a fantastic memory. I learned to read from Zipper’s Greek myths at the age of four. There was a library at home, and that book stood on the lower shelf, which I could reach, and had beautiful illustrations. I suppose Nanny must have taught me some, because someone had to help me with letters, right? It wasn’t only street signboards… And I also remember that in the second grade my teacher, Mrs. Madejska, called my mother to ask her not to do my homework for me; the thing was that I wrote a composition that started like this: ‘Zeus lived on Olympus, Zeus was the god of the Greeks.’ That was the first sentence and the teacher was convinced my mother had helped me write it. And it turned out that I had already read the whole of Greek mythology.
No, I didn’t have any male friends. The only boys I knew were the sons of my parents’ relatives or friends. I had no other boy friends whatsoever. And girl friends – well, I had them. I had girl friends, classmates, it was always a circle here, a circle there. In my class there were Ukrainian kids, Polish ones, and Jewish ones. The Polish, i.e. the Roman Catholic ones, were the most numerous, then the Jewish ones, and the Ruthenian girls were relatively few. I remember religious classes. My elementary school religion teacher was called Wurm. I don’t remember his first name. There was also a Greek Catholic teacher, and a Roman Catholic one. They’d always arrive all three together. We’d go to the different classrooms, and the lessons took place simultaneously. We learned above all the Torah, and besides that, it was Jewish history. I don’t remember much because I never cared for it. Present in body, absent in mind. I was simply not interested in all that.
My first reminiscences from school are that I was very happy to be assigned to ‘A’ class, because ‘A’ was for ‘angels,’ and ‘B’ was something bad. But when Mother took me to school for the first time, she met her former teacher there, a Mrs. Madejska, who advised her to move me to the ‘B’ class after all. And Mom moved me to ‘B’ right away.
Mrs. Madejska was my first-grade class tutor. My subsequent tutors included Gertruda Ajrhorn and Zofia Gubrynowicz. In fact, Zofia Gubrynowicz was my tutor for a longer time than Miss Ajrhorn. The latter, despite her German name, was a great Polish patriot. Most of the teachers were, I guess, Polish. But I was simply not interested in all that at that time. Miss Ajrhorn was an old maid, in a long black skirt and a long-sleeved blouse, with a stand-up collar and a beautiful gold cameo. It was actually her who infected me with love for literature. Mrs. Gubrynowicz, in turn, was married and had sons who sometimes visited her at school. She was very cheerful. We loved her very much. We feared the other one [Ajrhorn], and her we loved.
I was actually the best student. I had no difficulties whatsoever. My favorite subjects? Polish literature. I also liked history and natural science. There was even a period when I was wondering whether not to become a naturalist. I had a fantastic memory. I learned to read from Zipper’s Greek myths at the age of four. There was a library at home, and that book stood on the lower shelf, which I could reach, and had beautiful illustrations. I suppose Nanny must have taught me some, because someone had to help me with letters, right? It wasn’t only street signboards… And I also remember that in the second grade my teacher, Mrs. Madejska, called my mother to ask her not to do my homework for me; the thing was that I wrote a composition that started like this: ‘Zeus lived on Olympus, Zeus was the god of the Greeks.’ That was the first sentence and the teacher was convinced my mother had helped me write it. And it turned out that I had already read the whole of Greek mythology.
No, I didn’t have any male friends. The only boys I knew were the sons of my parents’ relatives or friends. I had no other boy friends whatsoever. And girl friends – well, I had them. I had girl friends, classmates, it was always a circle here, a circle there. In my class there were Ukrainian kids, Polish ones, and Jewish ones. The Polish, i.e. the Roman Catholic ones, were the most numerous, then the Jewish ones, and the Ruthenian girls were relatively few. I remember religious classes. My elementary school religion teacher was called Wurm. I don’t remember his first name. There was also a Greek Catholic teacher, and a Roman Catholic one. They’d always arrive all three together. We’d go to the different classrooms, and the lessons took place simultaneously. We learned above all the Torah, and besides that, it was Jewish history. I don’t remember much because I never cared for it. Present in body, absent in mind. I was simply not interested in all that.
Period
Interview
Janina Wiener
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