Jadwiga Apostoł

Who is Jadwiga Apostoł?

Jadwiga Apostoł, or Jadwiga Apostoł-Staniszewska was a Polish teacher in the interwar period, an underground activist during World War II, and a writer in postwar Poland. Under the German occupation of Podhale, Apostoł became the co-founder of the Polish resistance group called the Tatra Confederation, a.k.a. Confederation of the Tatra Mountains, actively opposing the germanization of the Polish highlanders.

Apostoł survived Auschwitz and Malchow concentration camps, as well as Leipzig Arbeitslager before returning to Poland. After the Soviet liberation – as the only executive-member of the Tatra Confederation who was still alive – she was persecuted by the Ministry of Public Security and sentenced to five years in prison on trumped-up charges. Released the same year thanks to an amnesty, she was permanently barred from her occupation as a teacher. Jadwiga Apostoł spent the rest of her life in Szczecin. She returned to Podhale shortly before her death and was buried in Nowy Targ.