The handbag

The rectangular handbag is made of cotton fabric in beige-grey colour. It has a flap, separated bottom and a narrow strap (made of the same fabric), which was attached with metal buttons. The bag is decorated with cross-stitch embroidery in blue cordon. On one side (under the flap) the decorative monogram E. P. is visible. Along the edge of the flap there are small squares made with the use of the laid embroidery technique. On the other side of the bag a small pocket with a flap was sewn in. The same pattern of squares can be seen on the pocket flap as on the closing flap of the bag. The pocket is also decorated with a monogram. However, it is blurred and illegible. The edges are trimmed (secured) with the same thread used for the embroidery. Inside the bag there is a compartment (made of the same fabric) and numerous darts, small pockets and belt loops.

The shape of the bag and the number of loops suggest that it was modelled on a military loafer. The fabric was used secondarily. The colour and weave of the linen allow to assume that an old shirt was used to make the bag. Numerous discolorations can be seen on the whole surface of the fabric, as well as mending in places.

Tonia Lechtman was locked up in July 1949 in the prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw. She was held in cramped cells (2 x 2 m) with various female prisoners, including Halina Zakrzewska, Sabina Stalińska, Ewa Piwińska, Wanda Podgórska, Hedda Bartoszek. The women prisoners shared a deep friendship (see on this subject in particular: A. Muller, Mury, które łączą: Nieprawdopodobne przyjaźnie w więzieniu na Mokotowie, 1949-1956 (Walls that unite: Unlikely Frendships in Mokotów Prison, 1949-1956), Yearbook of Historical Anthropology 2015, no. 8). It can be thought that the textiles - mainly embroidered pouches - that have survived from that time were to some extent created by the inmates together, or if by themselves, they offered them to each other - so it is difficult to determine their authorship.

The monogram E. P. embroidered on the bag is most likely the first letters of Ewa Piwińska's first and last name. Was it her who made the bag and gave it to Tonia Lechtman or one of the other women prisoners? However, in her memoirs (written down by Dorota Dowgiałło, in the family archives), Tonia Lechtman said that none of her friends embroidered it.

Przemysław Kaniecki, Marta Frączkiewicz