This adorable little 8 years old girl with a bow in her hair and red cross ribbon on her arm is a Rose Gozdziewska. She was helping in the insurgent field hospital of “Koszta” company, set in the building at 11 Moniuszko street of Warsaw’s downtown. Thanks to her efforts and commitment many lifes were saved.
This image was made on August 1944 by Eugeniusz Lokajski “Brok”, who is one of the most important photographers of the Warsaw Uprising. He shot not only insurgents’ struggle and hardships of life on the front lines, but he also portayed individual participants of those events.
Rose Goździewska survived the war. After the war she lived in France, where she died in 1989 at the age of 53. The photo of the girl has made a career in the last decade thanks to the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising. It was used for posters and many other publications.
A similar success was a portrait of the very Lokajski who postured for a photo wearing a helmet on his head and holding a small black kitten in his arms, standing at the gate of a bombed building at 1 Moniuszko street. He did not live up to see the surrender of the uprising. He died on September 25th. On that day he went to the store of Stanislaw Bienkowski at Marszalkowska 129 where he usually bought his photographic materials to pick up more of those. In the same moment the building was hit with a bomb and ‘Brok’ died under collapsed wall. Before he left for the shop he handed his precious clichés with several hundreds of photos into care of his sister Zofia Domanska, which preserved them for nearly 60 years.
We visit the very same place during our North Downtown – Warsaw Uprising 1994 tour. Please join us to see it and listen to the full story.
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