Photograph of Stefania née Grossman (Maybaum / Marzyńska)

The photograph depicts Stefania Maybaumowa (Marzyńska) née Grossman (1879-1971) with her hands in the pockets of a dark jacket (a wide white lace collar lined at the top). She was a prominent social activist in Lodz in the first half of the 20th century. The charitable activity of Stefania nee Grossman eloquently proves that the daughter of the Częstochowa Grossman social activists was the continuator of the family ethos of social service (by the way, helping the poor is an important principle of Jewish ethics).

She worked in fields close to her mother's commitment. Together with her husband and doctors J. Brudziński and S. Serkowski, she founded the Kropla Mleka (Drop of Milk) institution for children's health care (1904; it was a section of the Łódż Branch of the Warsaw Hygienic Society), the first organisation of this type in Poland. Maybaumowa-Marzyńska was the president of this organisation, thriving and growing in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Kropla Mleka was modelled on the infant dispensary at the Charite maternity clinic in Paris. As Henryk Stanisław Dinter writes about the network of Polish dispensaries (Spod czarnych dymów. Łódź w latach 1861-1918 (From Beneath the Black Smoke. Łódź in 1861-1918)), Łódź 1978, p. 416): The first dispensary and the first milk kitchen - which also prepared nutritional mixtures - was located at the Anna-Maria Hospital. Initially, the kitchen served 200-250 portions of milk and mixed food, and in 1914 - 1100 portions. During and after the war, Kropla Mleka continued to grow, surpassing its Parisian prototype in every respect. Kropla Mleka dispensaries were set up in each district, which provided medical and nursing care for the children, subjecting their development to constant monitoring and, where necessary, assigning milk or nutritional mixtures. The mothers paid a minimum monthly amount and received nutrition for a fee. It existed until November 1939, liquidated by the Germans.

Maybaumowa-Marzyńska was also involved in the organisation of colonies for Jewish children, being on the board of directors of the Society of Summer Colonies for Children of the Mosaic Faith in Łódź from the middle of the first decade of the 20th century. It continued, year by year, with more and more impetus, the activity of Teresa Silberstein, the initiator of such colonies for children from the poorest Jewish families in Lodz (the first such trips in Europe were created, as we know, by Walter Brion at the end of 1870s. Just over ten years later, the first such camps for children from Łódź were organised by the Łódź Christian Charitable Association in 1891, and thanks to the work and great financial support of Silberstein, Jewish children from Łódź went to the first camp in 1893. See: K. Badziak, J. Walicki, Żydowskie organizacje społeczne w Łodzi [Jewish Social Organisations in Łódź ], Łódź 2002, p. 200-205).

Maybaumowa (Marzyńska) also led an extremely interesting social life. One example to give, she and her husband had close relationship with Henryk Kuna, an outstanding sculptor with Jewish roots. The often quoted words of Kuna about ideal beauty come from his correspondence with the Marzyńskis. In 1920 he wrote: I have invented something newer, I have discovered a new note in plastic art, other values with a reflection of old beauty, but [...] more strong in conception, and imbued with a great deal of heart. [...] Everyone reacts to this, even the little ones, and it also works like a drug on the strongest minds. I think I have found myself (see Mieczysław Wallis, Henryk Kuna, Warsaw 1959, p. 15).