Object numberM2019/065:001
DescriptionPoesie book (autograph book), with entries from family and friends, in Polish, German and Russian, Poland, 1905 - 1906, belonging to Helena Tabanska (1889-1943). At the time of collecting entries in the poesie book, Helena was enrolled in a private Polish boarding school for girls.
The book includes well-known poems taught in school as part of Polish national culture. The names of Polish writers whose poems and aphorisms appear in the album include:
Stanislaw Kozmian, Adam Mickiewicz, Maria Konopnicka, Adam Asnyk, Tadeusz Rittner, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Stanislaw Belza and Eliza Orzeszkowa.
Translated into English by Marta Kubiszyn.
Helena, born in Warsaw, was married to Abram Tabanski (also spelled Tabanskij), born in Russia. Abram studied dentistry in Odessa before moving to Warsaw in the late 1800s. Though being Jewish was part of their identity, they lived as secular Jews in a non-Jewish area of Warsaw. They had two children, Irena (born circa 1908) and Kristina (known as Krysia) (born 1912). Helena raised her children to be polite, respectful and moral. She was a loving and selfless mother.
When the Warsaw ghetto was completed, she and her family were already living in the small ghetto. Warsaw ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II, established by the German authorities in November 1940. Over 400,000 Jews were imprisoned there, barely subsisting on meagre food rations.
Abram helped distribute food to poverty-stricken Jews. He eventually caught Typhus and died 23 October 1943. The family was moved into the large ghetto. Helena was living with her daughters and 5-year-old grandchild Wlodus (son of Irena) and other families in a tiny apartment. In March 1943 Helena was deported to Treblinka where she was murdered. Krysia’s husband Michael Ilutowicz arranged for her to escape from the ghetto. A Polish Catholic family - Vitold and Maryla Pac and their baby Teresa, and Wanda Pac (Vitold’s sister) - sheltered her for two years.
In April 1943, Irena and Wlodus were deported to Majdanek extermination camp where they were murdered. Michael was sent to a forced labour camp, and was later executed by a firing squad. The sole survivor of the family, Krysia left for Australia in November 1948. In Sydney she met Izaac Turek; they married on 30 November 1949 in the Central Synagogue, Bondi Junction.
Krysia took the poesie book as she escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, and kept it while living as a Christian, later bringing it with her to Australia. It is all that remains of her mother.
The book includes well-known poems taught in school as part of Polish national culture. The names of Polish writers whose poems and aphorisms appear in the album include:
Stanislaw Kozmian, Adam Mickiewicz, Maria Konopnicka, Adam Asnyk, Tadeusz Rittner, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Stanislaw Belza and Eliza Orzeszkowa.
Translated into English by Marta Kubiszyn.
Helena, born in Warsaw, was married to Abram Tabanski (also spelled Tabanskij), born in Russia. Abram studied dentistry in Odessa before moving to Warsaw in the late 1800s. Though being Jewish was part of their identity, they lived as secular Jews in a non-Jewish area of Warsaw. They had two children, Irena (born circa 1908) and Kristina (known as Krysia) (born 1912). Helena raised her children to be polite, respectful and moral. She was a loving and selfless mother.
When the Warsaw ghetto was completed, she and her family were already living in the small ghetto. Warsaw ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II, established by the German authorities in November 1940. Over 400,000 Jews were imprisoned there, barely subsisting on meagre food rations.
Abram helped distribute food to poverty-stricken Jews. He eventually caught Typhus and died 23 October 1943. The family was moved into the large ghetto. Helena was living with her daughters and 5-year-old grandchild Wlodus (son of Irena) and other families in a tiny apartment. In March 1943 Helena was deported to Treblinka where she was murdered. Krysia’s husband Michael Ilutowicz arranged for her to escape from the ghetto. A Polish Catholic family - Vitold and Maryla Pac and their baby Teresa, and Wanda Pac (Vitold’s sister) - sheltered her for two years.
In April 1943, Irena and Wlodus were deported to Majdanek extermination camp where they were murdered. Michael was sent to a forced labour camp, and was later executed by a firing squad. The sole survivor of the family, Krysia left for Australia in November 1948. In Sydney she met Izaac Turek; they married on 30 November 1949 in the Central Synagogue, Bondi Junction.
Krysia took the poesie book as she escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, and kept it while living as a Christian, later bringing it with her to Australia. It is all that remains of her mother.
Production date 1905 - 1906
Object nameautograph books
Dimensions
- width: 130.00 mm
height: 200.00 mm
depth: 20.00 mm
Language
- Polish
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Yvonne Haber