Our Lady of Sorrows

The painting was donated to the National Museum in Szczecin on the basis of a bequest made in 1976 by Janina Szczerska (born on 22 October 1897 in Stryj, died on 10 July 1981 in Szczecin), a teacher who came to Szczecin in 1945 and was entrusted by Stanisław Helsztyński, the then superintendent of the West Pomeranian School District, with the task of establishing the first Polish secondary school in the city. She started her work by looking for a suitable building, finally choosing a building Barnima 12 (currently Aleja Piastów), which housed men’s middle school before the war. On Janina Szczerska's initiative, the army contributed to the renovation work, along with future students with their parents. They started to tidy up the building, remove unnecessary equipment and gather basic furnishings for their new school building. Thanks to the intensive work, the first school year in post-war Szczecin was inaugurated on 2 September 1945. She worked as the school’s headmistress until 1951, when she was dismissed, most probably because of her involvement with the Home Army and her help for repressed schoolgirls. After the dismissal, she immediately left the city and took a job at a middle school in Pyskowice, and then at a primary school and high school in Bielsko-Biała. She returned to Szczecin after seven years. Until her retirement in 1966, she continued working as the headmistress of her school. She died in 1981 at the age of 83 and was buried in the Alley of the Distinguished at the Central Cemetery in Szczecin.

Anna Lew-Machniak