Coffee cup

The porcelain cup, produced by the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in Leningrad, was an element of the interior design of the Szczecin flat of Helena Kurcyusz (1914-1999), a Polish architect and town planner, painter, and culture promoter in post-war Szczecin. At the end of the Second World War, Kurcyuszowa was detained in a subsidiary of the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Neubrandenburg, which the Germans evacuated westwards towards Schwerin at the end of April 1945. However, when informed of the approaching Red Army, the camp guards fled, leaving the prisoners to fend for themselves. Kurcyuszowa and her camp companions set off on foot towards Poland, trying to avoid the front line and the larger towns that were still suffering heavy bombardment. After a fortnight or so, they managed to board a Soviet truck carrying war trophies to Szczecin, then occupied by the Red Army. Although the women wanted to continue their journey to Piła, they were stopped in the city when two of them collapsed due to illness. Kurcyuszowa received great amount of support in looking after her sick friends from two Russian soldiers: captain Zhorzhik and senior lieutenant Dymitr, who were stationed at the barracks in Gumienice, the district where they found a house that could serve as temporary accommodation. This is how Kurcyuszowa recalled this period many years later: 'We spent very pleasant and, as they themselves described it, "oczeń kulturny” (very cultural) evenings together. I arranged something of a "living room" in the right wing of our house. There wasn't any glass in the window panes, but I hung some curtains, put up bouquets of roses, and there was a piano and some soft furniture, so it was quite cosy. I hosted them with coffee - I had a trophy bag of officer's coffee - and something like gingerbread cookies made on artificial honey. My friends played the piano and sang, so there were concerts every day, featuring Mrs Zosia and myself.’ Anna Lew-Machniak