Born in 1914 in Sandomierz, Helena Kurcyusz was a daughter of Teresa nee Paszkiewicz and of Zygmunt Słonimski who was a graduate from The Engineering and Construction Faculty of Technical Institute in Warsaw and worked as district architect in Sandomierz and then in Radom.
Her father's becoming the President of Warsaw connected her adult life with the capital. It was there that she graduated from the elite Cecylia Plater-Zyberek Gymnasium and Comprehensive, and then began studies at The Faculty of Architecture of The Warsaw University of Technology, where she graduated from in June 1939 obtaining an architect diploma.
After the outbreak of the war in the same year, Helena, like many other residents of Warsaw, risked her life to co-create the civil defense of the besieged capital, actively engaging in the work of the Technical Emergency Service providing help to the wounded. During the occupation, she started cooperation with a secret underground organization, the Union of Armed Struggle under the pseudonym "Teresa", and then with the Home Army. There was a contact box in her apartment, exams for students of a secret cadet school and conspiratorial meetings were held there as well. Unfortunately, Helena was betrayed by one of her fellows, who, cruelly tortured, revealed her name during the interrogation.
On October 9th 1942, she was arrested and imprisoned in Pawiak, and on January 17th 1943, she was transported to Kriegsgefangenenlager der Waffen SS Lublin - a camp for prisoners of war, commonly known as Majdanek, which was soon renamed Konzentrationslager Lublin - a concentration camp. The first contact with the camp was a real shock for Kurcyuszowa. Years later, she recalled this moment: "... we were hit by the sharp glow of the lights and we saw endless rows of barracks surrounded by barbed wire. From time to time, protruding watchtowers, from which huge searchlights constantly swept the entire camp, like a lighthouse sweeping the darkness of the sea. But the light of the lighthouse brings hope and salvation to the sailors, and the lights of the camp towers brought death and extermination to the prisoners." The Majdanek administration assigned her number 4609, which was to replace her name and surname from then on. Initially, she performed cleaning work, but after some time she was transferred to the Gärtnerei commando, where she worked in the cultivation of vegetables and fruit for the camp. However, this was not the last assignment she received during her imprisonment at Majdanek. When the camp authorities found out about her education, they appointed her to the position of Lagerarchitect. Her duties included, among others: maintaining order in the fencing belt between the wires, marking and constructing roads and paths within prisoner fields, digging drain ditches and creating a large lawn along the main road of the camp. While in the camp, Helena also tried to pursue her passion for art. As far as possible, she practiced small forms of painting and drawing. As a Lagerarchitect, she was in constant contact with free workers transporting the necessary materials or performing specialized construction works in the camp. Among them was also Eng. Piotr Denisov, who illegally provided her with watercolours. In April 1944, Helena Kurcyusz was transported to KL Ravensbrück, and then to Neubrandenburg, where she was liberated.
After the end of the war, Helena intended to return to Warsaw, but on the way, in Szczecin, it turned out that two of her companions from the camp fell ill with typhus. In this situation, she decided to stay here for a while and look after them. During that time, the Polish authorities visited and left Szczecin for several times. In Wały Chrobrego, in the present Voivodship Office, there was a Committee to Aid Poles, where Kurycuszowa went almost every day to buy milk and bread for her ill friends. Being there again on July 5th 1945, she managed to meet the new city President, Eng. Piotr Zaremba, who, having found out who she was, immediately offered her an architect's job, giving her one day to make the decision. As almost majority of her dreams were related to Warsaw and she had connected her life and work with it, the decision was extremely difficult for her. Nevertheless, she finally decided to stay in Szczecin, although, as she said many years later, she did not know what was in its favour: "Was it curiosity about something completely new, unknown, adventurous, or a sense of duty towards the country to contribute to the development of these, at that time still stranger and empty areas, or fear of returning to Warsaw, where - I already knew then - nobody and nothing awaited me".
As early as in July 1945, Helena Kurcyusz started her first job at the Technical Department of the Szczecin City Board. One of her first duties was to participate in the Street Renaming Commission, where she managed to rename many pre-war streets, such as Mackensenstraße into Bohaterów Warszawy (Heros of Warsaw), or Holzmarktstraße na Wiatru od Morza (Wind from the Sea). The new name of Pasewalker Chaussee, where she lived with her companions, was especially important to her. As she faced the sunrise wandering along it towards the city centre every morning and saw the sunset returning in the evening, she decided to name this street simply - Ku Słońcu (Towards the Sun).
In 1946, Helena received a letter from the Ministry of Culture and Art signed by the Chief Conservator of the Country, Professor Jan Zachwatowicz, who turned to her as the only architect in Szczecin known to him personally, instructing her to carry out inventory and secure works on the monuments in the city until the appointment of monument conservator. She started these works with the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle, where she discovered dukes' sarcophagi in the crypt located under the floor of the castle chapel. The filling of the vacant position of the Voivodship Conservator, which was given at the end of 1946 to the art historian Dr. Leopold Kusztelski, did not weaken Helena's interest in matters related to the protection of monuments. As a voivodship town planner, and since 1946 as the head of the Town Planning Department in the newly established Regional Planning Directorate, she supervised the protection of historic urban layouts, as well as preserved historic building complexes. She looked after 74 cities and towns scattered throughout the then Szczecin Voivodship. An important stage in Kurcyuszowa's life was participation in the action announced by the Central Office of Spatial Planning to develop simplified spatial development plans for cities in the Western Territories, led by her former fellow-student Kazimierz Wejchert. Approximately at the same time, in 1948, she also took part in the establishing an independent Faculty of Architecture as part of the Higher School of Engineering in Szczecin, where she was an assistant to Professor Marek Leykam, running classes in the history of architecture and architectural design. In 1950, due to the liquidation of the Regional Directorates of Spatial Planning throughout Poland, Helena moved to the Construction Department at the Presidium of the Voivodship National Council. Her work basically did not change, she was still the voivodship town planner and her duties included, among others, locating all investments in Szczecin and in its vicinity. Five years later, she started working as a senior designer at the Voivodship Urban Studio, under which she designed local plans of, among others, Trzebież, Międzyzdroje, Nowe Warpno, Drawsko Pomorskie, Pełczyce, Trzebiatów, as well as individual buildings, such as the library in Choszczno, the ZNTK (Railway Repair Units) holiday pavilion in Międzyzdroje, or fire-fighting buildings in Świnoujście. In 1974, Kurcyuszowa formally retired, but she was still an active participant in all major activities for Szczecin and the entire voivodship.
Apart from her professional work, Helena Kurcyusz was active in the Szczecin branch of the Association of Polish Architects (SARP), which she founded in 1947, being its president for several terms. Then, she also co-established the Society of Polish Town Planners (TUP), dealing with the broadly understood planning of spatial systems and structures.
She was also a co-organizer and author of the name of the "13 Muz" (13 Muses) Club, the only cultural centre of Szczecin at that time associating writers, artists, actors, architects, journalists and musicians. Thanks to her activities as, among others, the president of the Club, after 1956 there was a resurgence in the activity of this institution, the stagnation of which at the beginning of the 1950s was caused by the introduction of the so-called principles of Socialist Realism. In the 1970s, she acted as the hostess in club meetings called "Evening with the Host", attended by, among others actors of the State Dramatic Theatres.
Helena Kurcyusz was also active outside the Club. AT her home, ul. Wyspiańskiego 7, she ran a cultural salon, which was attended by the then elite of the city. Various events, poetry readings, and even painting vernissages were often held there. It was a meeting place for people from all walks of life. The house was invariably a place of exchanging views, friendly disputes, but also many beautiful social celebrations, ranging from name days, sometimes attended by up to sixty people, to New Year's Eve and carnival parties. Family events were also regular, as, despite the fact that Helena did not have children of her own, it was in her apartment that several weddings of daughters and sons of her friends took place.
Since the 1950s, she collaborated with an independent Catholic community, which was reflected in the fact that she organized in her villa meetings of academic youth with a popular and respected priest - Jesuit, academic chaplain, father Władysław Siwek. During them, young people learned not only about the historical truth, then officially distorted, but also had the opportunity to deepen her religious knowledge and learn to think independently. It was not the only form of resistance to the ruling system that Kurcyuszowa practised. After the brutal pacification of the strikes in Ursus and Radom in June 1976, which finally unmasked the true face of "socialism with a human face", she stood up in defense of the beaten and imprisoned workers, becoming a signatory of numerous letters of protest, petitions and appeals signed by The Workers' Defense Committee and The Movement of Defense of Human and Citizen Rights. Helena's house was under the constant observation of the security services, which in 1978 initiated the case of the operational investigation "Szarotka" (Edelweiss), the main purpose of which was, among others, liquidation of opposition activities in the villa of Helena Kurcyusz. As a result of the actions taken at that time, Helena's house was permanently excluded from the activities of opposition groups in Szczecin. The above actions only deepened her negative attitude towards the system of the time. She welcomed the events initiated by the talks at the Round Table and ended with the first general presidential election.
Beyond her professional work, Helena Kurcyuszowa was actively involved in social activities. She belonged to the "Ogniwo" Sports Club operating at the Presidium of the Voivodship National Council, as well as to the Sport Shooting Section, for several years representing Szczecin in the Polish Championships and acting as a judge in the competitions taking place here. She was also an activist of The Union of Combatants and Former Prisoners of Concentration Camps, as well as of the Committee for Physical Culture and Tourism. Activities within Society of Amateur Artists was also important for her. Apart from accomplishments in architecture and urban planning, Helena had a great painting talent and created numerous watercolours depicting wide range of themes, from landscape, greenery and architecture, to portraits and miniatures. Some of these works were presented at individual and occasional exhibitions, exhibited in Szczecin and Warsaw in the years 1965, 1970, 1980. Helena Kurcyusz was also the author of numerous poems and journals from the times of the occupation and the first years of her residence in Szczecin. In recognition of her merits, she received a variety of decorations and distinctions, such as: the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Gold Cross of Merit, the Medal of Victory and Freedom, and the 30th Anniversary Medal. In 1998 she was awarded the title of the Pioneer of the City of Szczecin.
Helena Kurcyusz died on January 21st 1999 in Szczecin. She was buried at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw, in the family tomb, next to her mother, Teresa Słomińska, and Modest Gramz, a family member and teacher at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Szczecin. After her death, thanks to the efforts of her friends, a stone with a plaque commemorating her person was erected in the Central Cemetery in Szczecin. The fireplace room in the "13 Muz" Club was named after her. At the same time, just a few months after her death, the Szczecin councillors, having not waited law-required ten years, named a small street, running between al. Wojska Polskiego and ul. Wyspiańskiego, ul. Heleny Kurcyuszowej.
Dr. Anna Lew - Machniak
