Anna Zabrzeska (married name Czernicka) was born in Oświęcim in 1923 where she attended primary school. She also began middle school here, which was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.
When the Germans set up KL Auschwitz in 1940, Zabrzeska began helping the prisoners almost from the start. She acted spontaneously, planting food and medicine for inmates working outside the camp. She acted as an intermediary in forwarding illegal correspondence (secret messages) to families. She would even spend her entire salary on helping the prisoners. When packages could be sent to the camp, she did so through the official mail.
She engaged her brother Kazimierz, Oświęcim and Brzeszcze pharmacists and Oświęcim residents in these activities. She carried out this assistance almost without interruption until the end of the German occupation.
The end of the war meant several years of normality for Anna Zabrzeska. However, in December 1949 she was arrested in Katowice by the Department of Security (Polish political police). The actual reason she was deprived of her freedom was that she maintained her acquaintance with Tadeusz Cieśla, her fiancé, who was sentenced to death by the communists.
She spent eleven months in the custody of the Communist political police. She was cruelly treated during this time: beaten, interrogated repeatedly day and night, sometimes by nine torturers at once, and totally deprived of contact with her family. By a November 1950 military court order, she was sentenced to five years in prison with loss of civil rights for two years and forfeiture of property. She served almost her entire sentence.
Anna Zabrzeska was decorated several times for her attitude during World War II, including with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
She lives in Brzezinka near Oświęcim.
Fot. Zdjęcie – zbiory MPMZO / archiwum prywatne Wiktorii Czernickiej – Białczyk