The small bag

The bag is made of a fragment of cotton canvas. The object consists of four fields and a distinguished bottom. Each field is decorated with embroidery in the form of a floral application. On two of the fields green twigs ending in blue flowers can be seen, on the other two flowers are red - alternately. The edges or connections of the fields are framed by Zakopane embroidery (blue thread). At the bottom, in the central field, the initial T is visible in red. The initial is surrounded by a wreath of green twigs and red flowers. All applications are made with laid stitch. The bag is tied at the top with a string ending in a shank.

The embroidered letter T is most probably the first letter of Toni Lechtman's name. The fabric was used secondarily. The colour and weave of the linen allow us to assume that a fragment of used clothing was used to make the bag. Numerous discolorations and, in places, mending are visible.

In her memoirs, written down by Dorota Dowgiałło (which remain in the family archives), Tonia Lechtman said the following about her sewing and embroidering activities in the detention centre:

I had nothing to do, so I embroidered. Probably once a month they threw a few rags for cleaning floors into our cells, apart from that, we had our own clothes. I, for example, had a jumper that I could rip and pull threads out of for embroidery. I don't remember any more which of the prisoners taught me how to make needles out of matches - you had to take a pebble, and if you didn't have one, find a suitable place on the concrete floor and file a match so that it became round and pointed at the end. Then you cut it at the top, put a thread in the gap. And you could sew. I still have those needles from prison. At first I did this only to sew something on or to tighten my stockings. After all, I wore the same stockings all the time, still from the times of freedom. Very quickly they were spotted everywhere, literally everywhere. I could sew all day long. Often in the evening the needle would break - after all it was made of a match. Then I embroidered - just for pleasure.

I knitted, for example, a whole set of doilies. All the threads were very thin, so they had to be short. I needed the right material. I remember once I got a very colourful cloth. I tucked it away and slowly knitted. One prisoner, who was put in our cell for a few days, had an extremely colourful jumper. She was from Gdańsk and said she would leave soon. And I said to her: - Before you leave, please give me some threads from your jumper, green, purple. She was terrified, because everyone who came to the prison took great care of their things. There was no telling when she would get new ones. It scared her so much that she cried.... but after a few hours she came out.We had aluminium cups. So I embroidered a lid and a plate for my mug. When I ran out of material and had nothing to do, I would rip up the previous work and start again. Often a guard would then come in and tell me that what I had done was so beautiful that he would not allow me to rip.

Of course, no matches were allowed. It was only during the last six months that I was allowed to smoke cigarettes. And before that, I collected used matches and pebbles during my walks. I did this for quite a long time - and it kept me alive.None of my friends embroidered. But I know from stories that they did. Now I hate it. I knew many people who made bread figures in prison. And I saw the work of one colleague. My American boss's wife also made beautiful things in Budapest. She could make her figures hair and braids. Unfortunately, everything got destroyed, fell apart. Some of the female prisoners brought twigs from their walks, pulled thread out of their jumpers and knitted them. I didn't have the heart for it, although I generally liked this kind of work as something practical.

Przemysław Kaniecki, Marta Frączkiewicz