Later Career
While Kossak-Szczucka is generally credited with galvanising a united front in the struggle to help Jews, she and others were already involved in this work, either as party activists or as individuals. The aim after 1942 was to unite all these forces and link them with the resources of the Home Army (AK) and to get funds from the government-in-exile in London and other sources.
In 1943 Kossak-Szczucka was arrested, but the Germans did not realise who she was. She was sent first to the infamous Pawiak prison and then to Auschwitz. There she was held in the concentration-camp not the adjacent extermination camp where Jews were sent. She was released through the efforts of the Polish underground and returned to Warsaw. In late 1944 she participated in the Warsaw Uprising. At the end of the War, a communist regime began to establish itself in Poland under Soviet supremacy. In June, 1945 Zofia Kossak was called in by Jakub Berman, the new Polish Minister of the Interior, a Jew. He strongly advised her to leave the country immediately. This was for her protection, for the Minister knew what his government would do to non-communists, and he knew from his brother, Adolf Berman, what Zofia had done to save many Jews. So he saved Zofia's life. Zofia escaped to the West, but returned to Poland in 1957, after the end of the stalinist period.
Kossak-Szczucka published Z otchłani: Wspomnienia z lagru (From Abyss: Memories from the Camp) 1946, describing her experiences in Auschwitz. Dziedzictwo 1956-67 is about the Kossak family, and Przymierze (Alliance) 1952 has biblical themes. Kossak-Szczucka also wrote books for children and teenagers, including Bursztyn 1936 and Gród nad jeziorem (Castle at the Lake) 1938.
In 2009, the National Bank of Poland issued a coin commemorating the work of Kossak and of two other women in helping Jews (see Żegota).
Zofia's daughter, Anna Szatkowska, who lives in Switzerland, has recently written a book about her experience during the Warsaw Uprising.
Read more about this topic: Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
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