Helena Bohle-Szacki

Helena Bohle-Szacka was born on 27 February 1928 in Białystok as the daughter of a Polish Jewess and a German. Marriage connections of this kind were nothing unusual at that time - Białystok in the interwar period is a melting pot of cultures where Jews, Poles, Germans, Russians, Belarusians and Tatars live side by side. Helena Bohle-Szacka will later call her hometown a "multicultural Polish house" due to its atmosphere and its many different identities and traditions."Contrary to what was later recounted, there was a certain symbiosis in this mixture of numerous nationalities. It created a certain atmosphere, it was like a fragrance in the air that permeated people."[1]

Helen grows up in a spirit of tolerance. Although evangelically baptized, she often celebrates Catholic festivals. The family of her mother Maria Fanny, née Tobolska, is completely assimilated and does not cultivate Jewish traditions. The fact that Helena's mother and her first husband are married in a Protestant church also underlines this. However, the marriage breaks up quickly and Maria Fanny, who is pregnant with Helena's older sister, Irena, gets to know Alexander Bohle, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin who works as a representative for foreign textile companies in his native city, Białystok. Helena inherits the artistic skills of both her parents - her mother is a graduate of the piano class of the Moscow Conservatory.

The first eleven years of Lilka's life (as Helena is called by her friends and acquaintances) pass without a care. The family lives in a wooden house on Jurowiecka Street. The family is quite well off - they employ a nanny and a domestic help. Behind the house is a large garden - this is where little Helen loves to spend her time. The children go on excursions to Supraśl, and in summer the family relaxes by the sea. Polish is spoken at home, unless the parents don't want the children to overhear their conversation, in which case they switch to Russian. Helena's mother speaks no Yiddish at all. Her father, on the other hand, who has numerous business contacts with Jews, speaks the language reasonably well.

Her idyllic childhood is abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Białystok is annexed to the Soviet occupation zone. However, the horror period only begins when the National Socialists invade the city in 1941. In July a ghetto is set up, into which Helena's mother and sister Irena are committed. A short time later they manage to get through to the "Aryan" side of the city and hide. During an attempt to change their hiding places, Irena is murdered by the Gestapo in 1941 or 1942.

As a half-Jewish woman, who was also baptized as a Protestant, Helena belongs to the so-called "mixed-breed of the first degree" group, a fact which initially offers her some protection. Her father Alexander signs the 'people's list' and is as committed as he can to helping Jews, as later testified by survivors.

 

The situation begins to deteriorate in 1944. One day the Gestapo visits the family and takes the 16-year-old Helena for interrogation. They ask her about her mother, who has been constantly hiding behind a cupboard in the apartment which Lilka shares with her father. The girl is arrested for no reason whatsoever: she might well have been denounced as a half-Jew. Her completely distraught father tries to set every lever in motion to free her from prison. Without success. A month later Helena and a group of about 400 women are taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in a cattle car. She is classified as "antisocial" and forced to wear a yellow-black triangle. At that time about 30,000 women were interned in Germany's largest concentration camp for women. They suffer from hunger, disease and lice infestation.

Despite the reality of the Ravensbück camp, Helena in begins to draw scenes, images of saints and small portraits of her fellow sufferers. She also paints the Madonna - tender, girlish, with long eyelashes and a pretty nose. The drawing survives the war, and years later its creator will use it to sketch models for her fashion collections for leading fashion houses. In keeping with her incomparable sense of humour, she herself will later compare her picture of the Madonna in the camp with Pola Negri.

In Ravensbrück Helena volunteers for the next transport. She is to travel to Flossenbürg in Bavaria and work in arms production there. For unknown reasons she is assigned to the category of political prisoners and receives a new patch for her clothes – a red triangle. In April 1945 the concentration camp is evacuated. For the interned women, a death march to the Zwodau subcamp (Svatava, now in the Czech Republic) begins. There they are liberated by the Americans on May 7th and subsequently Helena sets off for home to look for her parents.

After the end of the war Maria Fanny and Alexander Bohle livefor a time in Łódź They regard their daughter's return as a miracle. Helena suffers from tuberculosis and other complaints, and she also has to deal with her traumatic experiences. It will take some time before she can sleep in a bed again instead of on the floor.. The reasons for her later health problems - heart disease, infertility and deteriorating eyesight – can also be traced back to her experiences in the camp.

In 1947 Lilka is enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. She studies graphic art, amongst others with the famous painter Władysław Strzemiński, who will have a great influence on her work. A short time later, at the age of 19, she embarks upon her first marriage to a much older doctor, Benedykt Winer: "My first marriage was  of an incredibly short duration. Maybe I wanted to compensate for all my bad experiences, illnesses and the time in the camp. Something in me had been suppressed, but then it gradually came to light. "Suddenly I began to make up for everything that I had been deprived of."[2] Shortly afterwards she meets her second husband, Jerzy Urbanowicz.

The joy of regaining her youth ends at the beginning of the 1950s when the next family tragedy occurs. Her father is arrested by the State Security (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB) and throws himself out of the window for unknown reasons. His funeral is attended by many mourners since he was very well known and appreciated in Łódź. Following this, Helena's mother, who cannot come to terms with her husband's death, leaves Poland to find exile, first in Israel and later in Brussels.

 

Helena began a new phase in her life in the 1950s when she started working at "Dziennik Łódzki" (the Lodz daily newspaper). Initially, to earn some extra money, she writes articles on fashion and beauty. She offers her readers advice on fashion outfits for New Year's Eve, for example, and gives tips on how to comb your hair so that "your hairstyle is fashionable and suits your face". She also reports on fashion shows and the latest trends that were to become an expression of personal freedom, especially after the death of Stalin. In addition to her articles, she also publishes styling sketches and illustrations. It is not long before she begins to work with the most prestigious fashion magazines, including "Uroda" and "Moda". In 1957 Helena (her surname is still Urbanowicz) took up work as the artistic director of the fashion house "Telimena" in Łódź  Under her leadership the company begins to develop into a serious competitor for the then only important fashion design house, "Moda Polska". The latest collections organised by Helena at prestigious venues are celebrated in the press as" major fashion reviews". On one of her increasingly frequent trips to Warsaw she meets Wiktor Szacki. She leaves her husband for him and moves to the capital.

The changes in her private life are also followed by a change of job. In 1963 Helena Bohle-Szacka joins "Moda Polska", where she takes up a position as chief fashion designer. Her collections herald a turning-point in the perception of the fashion world which until then had not enjoyed much social recognition. Fashion shows are now held in popular cafés or clubs and capture the nerve of young people dancing to beat music. Nonetheless, due to disputes with her superior, Helena switches to a competitor - the fashion company "Leda", where she takes over as artistic director. In all this time she is expanding her contacts abroad. In 1965 a fashion show displaying her collection is held in the famous Europa-Center in West Berlin, and is enthusiastically received by the German press. At the time Helena Bohle-Szacka still had no idea that Berlin would become her new home just three years later - but not on her own initiative.

West Berlin is to be only a stopover on the way to London, where the Szacki couple plan to take up permanent residence. Tired of the anti-Semitic campaign launched by the communist authorities, they leave Poland in December 1968. They do not take too much with them: a few personal things and clothes as well as a silver powder box Helena received from her employees at "Leda". The powder box contains a dedication: "To our dear Lilka – your friends at Leda. Warsaw, 10.12.68". They also manage to smuggle diplomas and work certificates across the border in a tobacco box, items which they are not officially allowed to take with them.

Helena is entitled to compensation for her suffering during the war. However, since the formalities are lengthy, the couple decides to settle permanently in Berlin. Wiktor Szacki, a chemist by profession, will be employed at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, and for some time he will also work for Radio Free Europe. Helena, on the other hand, who has been looking for a job for a long time, soon realizes that she is no longer the star of the fashion world beyond the Iron Curtain, but a poor immigrant from the East. Her former contacts in the German fashion world are of little use to her. So Helena earns a little extra by giving painting and interior design courses at the adult education centre, and sews skirts for a textile company in piecework. Three years later, she finally takes up a teaching position at the Lette School in Berlin. Here she works as a lecturer in graphic composition and visual communication. The background to getting the job is interesting: the students advocate her for the post instead of a German candidate. During this time, Helena Bohle-Szacki also created graphics and drawings. Now she rarely deals with fashion anymore.

The Szacki's apartment in Berlin now becomes a real institution. Artists, writers, translators and opera dancers call by. Cultural salons are organized ifeaturing guests like Zbigniew Herbert, Ryszard Krynicki, Jacek Bocheński, Witold Wirpsza and Adam Zgajewski.  Władysław Bartoszewski, Sławomir Mrożek and Jerzy Lipmann can also be seen here. But even destitute emigrants from Eastern Central Europe and numerous scholarship holders from Poland who lead a modest life can expect to find refuge with the Szackis - hardly anyone from the Communist Eastern bloc can afford a room in a Berlin hotel at the time. As a result the apartment is gradually renamed  the "Szacki-Hotel".

When the 'Second Congress of Polish Culture in Exile' took place in London in 1985, during a reception with the Szackis the idea was born of organising a private Berlin congress in their apartment, which would meet regularly for consultations. Neither the participants of the meeting nor the hosts need much convincing to put the idea into practice. The Kultursalon establishes itself quickly and without any problems. The principle of openness towards all applies.

Helena Bohle-Szacki was not only culturally active at home. Between 1986 and 1999 she managed the gallery at the 'Polish Club of Catholic Intelligence' in Berlin. This institution was intended to counterbalance the negative image of the Poles in German society at the time. It set itself the task of countering the image created by numerous theft crimes committed by Poles or the employment of Poles as moonlighters, by replacing it with a positive image. With the support of the club, Helena Bohle-Szacki publishes two albums of her work: "Ślady i cienie" (Traces and Shadows) and "Od drzewa do drzewa" (From Tree to Tree). They contain the most important motifs of her work: geometric abstractions and trees. For the artist, the latter are an expression of perfection. Helena Bohle-Szacki now exhibits her work regularly, initially in smaller galleries. But later her prints and drawings can be admired in Copenhagen, Paris, Warsaw, Prague and London.

In the 1980s Helena Bohle-Szacki  also becomes involved with "Solidarność". In interviews she emphasises that she feels particularly attached to Polish culture. She sees herself as a political refugee and observes the events in Poland with great attentiveness. When the strikes begin she does not hesitate to organise help. Initially this consists mainly of packages of inks and materials necessary for printing leaflets or for the underground press. During the martial law period, she uses half her salary to pay for material support and food, including help for women whose husbands have been interned. She also persuades many of her German acquaintances to participate in the relief efforts. In 1994 she is awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for her commitment to popularizing Polish culture. She also regains her Polish citizenship.

Helena Bohle-Szacki continues to spend the last years of her life in an active way, although her deteriorating eyesight makes daily tasks increasingly difficult. During this time she begins to report more and more frequently about her war experiences in order to bear witness to future generations - as she herself says. In her earlier years she was unwilling to talk about it. She dies in Berlin on August 21st 2011. According to her wishes, her ashes are scattered in an unknown place.

 

Monika Stefanek, March 2018

 

 

The artist's extraordinary life and work is commemorated in the long-term project "Mosty – die Brücken", which is being implemented by the Sleńdziński gallery in Białystok and financed, among others, by funds from the Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft. As part of the project an exhibition dedicated to Helena Bohle-Szacki was held at Białystok in 2017. The project is also planned to be staged in Berlin, where artists from all over the world will reinterpret her work.

For the work on this article I have (amongst others), drawn on material from a book entitled, "Helena Bohle-Szacka. Lilka", which appeared in Białystok 2017 under the editorship of Marcin Różyc, and the article "Helena Bohle-Szacka. Pierwsza powojenna kreatorka, o której usłyszą za żelazną kurtyną“ by Hanna Rydlewska from a special supplement to the "Gazeta Wyborcza" entitled "Wysokie Obcasy" , published on 29th July 2017.

The online exhibition about Helena Bohle-Szacki is available here.