Krystyna Wituska (1920–1944)

Krystyna Wituska was born on 12 May 1920, just two years after Poland regained its independence. She was born in the village of Jeżew near Łódź to a wealthy family who had lived there for over 200 years. Her parents, Feliks and Maria, née Orzechowska, were landowners in Jeżew and Kłoniszew, where they ran a modern farm with fields, a fruit farm and hundreds of breeding animals. In 1938, Feliks Wituski founded a school for the children of the farm labourers who worked in his fields. Krystyna’s parents’ marriage was primarily one of convenience. The two families urged the couple to marry as an eleventh-hour emergency measure, although ultimately, it was the dowry offered by Feliks to the parents of the bride that decided the matter. 

Krystyna enjoyed an idyllic childhood. During the warm months, she spent the days outdoors with her sister Halina, who was a year older, and their father taught them about the wonders of nature. The children spent much of their time in their own enclosure, with canaries, deer and other animals. Both girls enjoyed a comprehensive education right from the start, which included lessons in French by a Swiss governess. A year later, they attended a private school in Łódź. At ten, Krystyna and her older sister were sent to the Catholic convent school of the Ursulines in Poznań, an institution with a good reputation and strict rules. Five years later, they both continued their school education in Warsaw, at the Queen Hedwig grammar school (Gimnazjum Królowej Jadwigi). Since Krystyna’s health worsened rapidly due to her weak lungs, she was sent by her parents first to Zakopane and then to the spa town of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Shortly before her departure, Wituska secretly became engaged to Zbigniew Walc. The parents of both young sweethearts were against the relationship, calling it “childish”. However, there followed an intensive exchange of letters between the two after they were separated from each other. They wrote to each other every two or three days (some of these letters survived the chaos of war and were found hidden away in the fireplace of the family home in Jeżew – author’s note).