The small bag

The rectangular bag made of cotton fabric. The bag is drawn together with a string ending in a hook and loop on both sides. It has no flap. Bottom sewn from five pieces of fabric, the handle in the form of a small loop made of roller. On both sides of the bag was decorated with embroidery. On one side, in the central field, is the symbol of a cross with equal arms and indentations at their end (Maltese Cross). The field is closed by an incomplete frame (trilateral) in the form of rhythmic embroidery. The cross and the frame are made in cross-stitch technique using blue and black coloured thread.

Along the edge of the bag there is a visible bordure in blue made using the Zakopane embroidery technique. The upper edge of the object is additionally decorated with three rows of Zakopane embroidery in blue. On the other side of the object, analogous embroidery can be seen, which differs only within the central field. Here (in place of the cross) there is an embroidered floral application in the form of a wreath consisting of five ears of corn (parzenica) and colourful field flowers. The bag is reinforced with a sewn-in lining (except for the bottom).The fabric was used secondarily. The colour and weave of the linen allow us to assume that an old shirt was used to make the bag. Numerous discolorations are visible, mending is also visible in places.

Tonia Lechtman was released from prison in October 1954. In Marceli Łoziński's film Tonia i jej dzieci(Tonia and Her Children) (2011), Wera Lechtman emphasised that the immediate reason for her release was a programme on Radio Free Europe, broadcast in the famous series of accounts by Colonel Józef Światła. This was a high-ranking employee of the Security Office during the deepest Stalinist period, who had fled to the West in December 1953. It was Światła who in 1949 personally arrested Tonia Lechtman when the Security Office was working out (fabricating) the case of Noel Field and the Unitarian Service Community. The woman became one of the more important defendants. All it took was for Light to highlight the trial in one of his broadcasts and mention Lechtman's name as an arrestee, and she was released.

Przemysław Kaniecki, Marta Frączkiewicz