Teacup

Porcelain cup produced by the Porzellanfabrik Hertel, Jacob & Co., operating since 1906 in Rehau, Bavaria. An item from the private flat of Helena Kurcyusz (1914-1999), the first architect and urban planner in post-war Szczecin, the object was donated to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin after her death in 1999. As a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology's Faculty of Architecture, she fought in the defence of Warsaw during the war, later operating in the following underground structures: Union of Armed Struggle and then the Home Army. In 1943, she was deported to the concentration camp at Majdanek, and then to Ravensbrück and Neubrandenburg. After the liberation she settled in Szczecin, accepting a job as an associate organiser of the Baudienst (building service) in the city. In July 1946, she was appointed Chief Town Planner of the Szczecin Province, a position she held until 1960. Helena Kurcyusz was, however, not only an architect-urban planner, but also an artistic life promoter of the city. She wrote poems, painted, and practised fencing. She also ran an open house that welcomed well-known people from the city's cultural milieu, and in the 1970s resistance activists would also meet at her villa at ul. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego 7. Anna Lew-Machniak