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My mother chose the gymnasium and high school for me. In fact, she directed my whole education, Father didn’t interfere at all. I took exams in Polish literature and math. It was Dr. Adela Karp-Fuchsowa’s private gymnasium and high school. There were three good private high schools in Lwow: [Zofia] Strzalkowska’s, Karp-Fuchsowa’s, and Olga Filippi-Zychowiczowa’s; my mother went to the latter, but she considered it too far from home. There were twenty-odd of us in the class. There were two classes. Unlike my elementary school, the high school was situated a long way from home, on Krasickich Street [now Ohiyenka]. It was for everyone, not only Jews.
Our class tutor at high school was Wanda Ladniewska-Blankenheim. My history teacher was Halina Poeckhowa. A very eloquent lady, and a very beautiful one too. I remember that the husband of the owner and superior, Zygmunt Fuchs, was a professor at the Lwow Polytechnic [Poland’s oldest technical university, founded 1844], at the aerodynamics faculty [head of the Aerodynamic Laboratory at the mechanics faculty] where not a single Jew was admitted [due to Anti-Semitism in Poland in the 1930s] [14]. And he, though he was a Jew, was a professor there. The Fuchses lived in the school building and we often met the professor on the stairs. We called him Malzon, from ‘malzonek’ [Polish for ‘husband’], or Prince Husband. I know that in 1937 or 1938 they were in the United States for half a year, and he was offered tenure, but she wouldn’t agree because the school was her life’s work and she couldn’t imagine not going back. And so they returned, and both lost their lives.
On 3rd May [15] and 11th November [celebration of Poland’s independence, 1918] there were always street parades and the whole school had to attend. I don’t remember going on those parades in elementary school, but in high school we did. Obligatorily. I remember that when Pilsudski went to Madeira [Portuguese island in the Atlantic where Pilsudski took a vacation between December 1930 and March 1931], I was probably in elementary school. Each of the pupils had written a name-day greetings card that we then sent to Madeira [Pilsudski’s name day was 19th March]. There was a cult surrounding Pilsudski in elementary school and in high school, absolutely. Yes, [on the wall] there was the Polish eagle [national emblem], a portrait of Moscicki [Ignacy Moscicki, president of Poland 1926-1939], and a portrait of Pilsudski.
Our class tutor at high school was Wanda Ladniewska-Blankenheim. My history teacher was Halina Poeckhowa. A very eloquent lady, and a very beautiful one too. I remember that the husband of the owner and superior, Zygmunt Fuchs, was a professor at the Lwow Polytechnic [Poland’s oldest technical university, founded 1844], at the aerodynamics faculty [head of the Aerodynamic Laboratory at the mechanics faculty] where not a single Jew was admitted [due to Anti-Semitism in Poland in the 1930s] [14]. And he, though he was a Jew, was a professor there. The Fuchses lived in the school building and we often met the professor on the stairs. We called him Malzon, from ‘malzonek’ [Polish for ‘husband’], or Prince Husband. I know that in 1937 or 1938 they were in the United States for half a year, and he was offered tenure, but she wouldn’t agree because the school was her life’s work and she couldn’t imagine not going back. And so they returned, and both lost their lives.
On 3rd May [15] and 11th November [celebration of Poland’s independence, 1918] there were always street parades and the whole school had to attend. I don’t remember going on those parades in elementary school, but in high school we did. Obligatorily. I remember that when Pilsudski went to Madeira [Portuguese island in the Atlantic where Pilsudski took a vacation between December 1930 and March 1931], I was probably in elementary school. Each of the pupils had written a name-day greetings card that we then sent to Madeira [Pilsudski’s name day was 19th March]. There was a cult surrounding Pilsudski in elementary school and in high school, absolutely. Yes, [on the wall] there was the Polish eagle [national emblem], a portrait of Moscicki [Ignacy Moscicki, president of Poland 1926-1939], and a portrait of Pilsudski.
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Interview
Janina Wiener
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