ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version
2015, No. (8), Anthropology and History
Anna Muller
Walls that Unite: Unlikely Friendships in Mokotów Prison, 1949-1956
![](http://rah.pth.net.pl/images/pdf-icon.png)
PDF version
Keywords: Interrogation Prison, Mokotów, Communism, Home Army, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Cell Informants, Women’s Friendship
Abstract: The article takes a close look at one female cell in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw, where from September 1949 to early 1950, five women were held together: Sabina Stalińska, Halina Zakrzewska, Tonia Lechtman, Ewa Piwińska, and Vera Szot. Stalińska and Zakrzewska both belonged to the Home Army. Lechtman and Piwińska were both committed and active Communists. Szot was arrested for her participation in the Ukra¬inian Insurgent Army. They spent their early months of interrogation in fearful anticipa¬tion of the coming days. Their interpretation of the situation as well as their allegiance to postwar Poland differed. The varied composition of the cell appeared to be an addi¬tional burden, as if confinement in an extremely overcrowded space was not punishment enough. Yet, the existing sources show that, despite the women’s ideological differences, the cell that they shared became an emotionally and intellectually open space, where at least some of the women attempted to understand each other. Their ideological commit¬ments and Communism were the most neutral topics of their discussions. These talks became their framework of self-exploration, which led to the close relationships that some of them continued years after the release.
About Author:
MULLER ANNA - historian, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Dearborn. Email: andziamu[at]gmail.com
References
Eva Kanturkova. 1987. My Companions in the Bleak House. New York
Tadeusz Wolsza. 2013. Więzienia stalinowskie w Polsce. System, codzienność, represje. Warszawa
Jadwiga Malkiewicz, Krzysztof Malkiewicz. 1994. W więzieniu i na wolności 1947–1956. Kraków
Herman Field, Kate Field. 1997. Opóźniony odlot. Warszawa 1997
Herman Field. 2002. Trapped in the Cold War. Stanford
Stacey J. Oliker. 1998. The Modernisation of Friendship. W Placing Friendship in Context. Cambridge
Tony Sharp. 2014. Stalin’s American Spy. Noel Field, Allen Dulles and the East European Show Trials. London
Teodora Żukowska. 2000. “Milena”. Na skraju dwóch światów… Wspomnienia 1939–1945. Warszawa
Stanisław Marat, Jacek Snopkiewicz. 1990. Ludzie Bezpieki. Dokumentacja czasu bezprawia. Warszawa
Huszang Asadi. 2013. Listy do mojego oprawcy. Miłość, rewolucja i irańskie więzienie. Wołowiec: Czarne Houshang Asadi. 2012. Letters to My Torture, Love, Revolution, and Imprisonment in Iran. Oneworld Publications
Halina Zakrzewska. 1984. Niepodległość będzie twoją nagrodą. Warszawa
Andrzej K. Kunert. 1987. Słownik biograficzny konspiracji warszawskiej 1939–1944. Warszawa
Jarosław Utrat-Milecki. 1995. „Więziennictwo w Polsce w latach 1944–56”. Studia Iuridica 27
Zawołać po imieniu. Księga kobiet-więźniów politycznych, 1944–1958. 1999. Warszawa
Brian Porter. 2014. Poland in the Modern World: Beyond Martyrdom. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell
Andrzej Paczkowski. 1997. Posłowie. W Opóźniony odlot. Warszawa
Andrzej Paczkowski. 2009. Trzy twarze Józefa Światły, Warszawa 2009
Zbigniew Błażyński. 1990. Mówi Józef Światło. Za kulisami bezpieki i partii, 1940–1955. Warszawa
Georg H. Hodos. 1987. Show Trials. Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe, 1948–1954. New York
Jukka Gronow. 1998. “Review of Adam Seligman’s The Problem of Trust”. Acta Sociologica 41