‘And I remember nothing more’ - meeting with the actress, Alina Świdowska

On 24.05.2024, the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna hosted a meeting with a Warsaw actress, Ms Alina Świdowska, daughter of Adina Blady-Szwajger, a legendary doctor from the Warsaw Ghetto.

This was the second event of the 3rd edition of our educational project ‘The Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna’

It is difficult to sum up this meeting, because both emotion grip the throat, and actually, who was the protagonist? An actress from a theatre in the capital came to us, just after the premiere of a monodrama based on her mother's memoirs: ‘And I remember nothing more’. The play, directed by Karolina Kirsz, had premiered just two days earlier, on 22.05.2024, at Warsaw's Jewish Theatre. It’s titled ‘She didn't want to remember’. Because, as we mentioned during the meeting, Adina Blady Szwajger believed that the reality of the ghetto, of the Holocaust, of this monstrous history, was incommunicable, and for many years she chose not to write her memoirs. It was only her friend and fellow ŻOB member, Marek Edelman, who persuaded her to write when she lay seriously ill in his ward in a Łódź hospital.

But above all, it was a meeting with them: the heroines and heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto. The many who were murdered and the few, like Adina or Marek Edelman, who managed to survive this hell. We wept over the fate of hundreds, thousands of children, wards of ghetto hospitals: prematurely mature, often aware of their fate, starved, for whom the last gesture of mercy was to administer morphine to ease their inevitable death. And so many others murdered, dying on the streets of the ghetto, in its bunkers and sewers, in the chambers of Treblinka, Auschwitz and other death camps.

Adina, from the windows of her hospital, saw Korczak walking with his children to the Umschlagplatz, but also dozens of others: doctors, nurses, caregivers from sanatoriums or orphanages who did not abandon their little charges, despite the possibility of rescue. Like Dr Anna Braude-Hellerowa, the head of the hospital, or many others.

Adina Blady-Szwajger herself, lost her mother, her first husband, many relatives and friends in the Holocaust.

Mrs Alina, her daughter, presented us with excerpts from the script of the aforementioned play, but also her role. She also shared personal memories of her mother, father, grandmother - Stefania Szwajger, the principal of a pre-war Warsaw secondary school, who, just before she was taken to the Umschlagplatz, to her death, of which she was perfectly aware, with her last tender gesture, wrote down a significant, famous card, a ‘testament’ for her daughter: "Darling, be well, don't commit any foolishness. Mother. I kiss you firmly, Stefan too. Honey paid, vouchers cut". Oh, pre-war solidity! This phrase found its way into Jacek Podsiadło's poignant poem: ‘A pillar of words’.

Our meeting was attended by an exceptionally large group of interested people. We were delighted to see young people from Mszana's secondary schools, as well as students and people who had come to Mszana especially for this event. The guests participated lively, asking questions and adding their own stories. After the meeting, the artist signed her mother's memoir book and talked individually with the participants. She was treated to our traditional, specially baked, Friday challah. Participants were also provided with refreshments and drinks, as usual.

We would like to thank Ms Alina for coming and presenting such an extraordinary performance.

The next meeting in our project will take place on 14.06.2024 at 5 p.m. in the City Hall on Piłsudskiego Street.

The event was held under the Honorary Patronage of the City Mayor Agnieszka Orzeł - our sincere thanks. Also for the presence of the Deputy Chairman of the District Council, Mr Grzegorz Wójcik.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Programme of the National Centre for Culture EtnoPolska. Edition 2024.

Photo: Rachela Antosz-Rekucka, Henryk Musiał