Writer and Activist
Zofia Kossak was the daughter of Tadeusz Kossak, who was the twin brother of painter Wojciech Kossak. She was also a granddaughter of painter Juliusz Kossak. She married twice, and kept the name Szczucka from her first marriage (second time with Zygmunt Szatkowski in 1925). In 1924 she settled in the village of Górki Wielkie in Cieszyn Silesia. She was associated with the Czartak literary group, and wrote mainly for the Catholic press. Her best-known work from that period is Conflagration, a memoir of the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1936 she received the prestigious Gold Laurel (Złoty Wawrzyn) of the Polish Academy of Literature.
Kossak-Szczucka is regarded as one of Poland's best historical novelists, alongside Henryk Sienkiewicz and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. Her historical novels include Beatum scelus (1924), Złota wolność (Golden Liberty, 1928), Legnickie pole (The Field of Legnica, 1930), Trembowla (1939), Suknia Dejaniry (Dejanira's Gown, 1939). Best known are Krzyżowcy (Crusaders, 1935), Król trędowaty (The Leper King, 1936), and Bez oręża (Blessed are The Meek, 1937) dealing with the crusades and later Francis of Assisi, translated into several languages. She also wrote Z miłości (From Love, 1926) and Szaleńcy boży (God's Madmen, 1929), on religious themes.
During the German occupation of Poland, Kossak-Szczucka worked in the underground press: from 1939 to 1941 she co-edited the underground newspaper, Polska żyje (Poland Lives) and in 1941 co-founded the Catholic organization, Front for the Rebirth of Poland (pol."Front Odrodzenia Polski"), and edited its newspaper Prawda (The Truth). In the underground, she used the code-name Weronika (Veronica).
Despite already being the target of an intensive Gestapo search, she exposed herself to the added danger of helping the Jews. Her motivation was moral, humanitarian and patriotic. She regarded the Germans' actions, she said, as an offense against man and God, and their policies as an affront to the ideals that she espoused for an independent Poland.
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