Chair

The chair was part of the furnishings of a private apartment of Janina Szczerska (born on 22 October 1897 in Stryj, died on 10 July 1981 in Szczecin), which was donated to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin in a will drafted on 1 September 1976. Janina Szczerska, a teacher and educator, took it upon herself to establish the first secondary school in Szczecin after the end of World War II. The facility she managed quickly gained recognition and reputation, becoming one of the best in the city. Time, however, changed a lot. The communist authorities, perfecting their propaganda tools, started to use schools as centres for propagating communist ideas. As a former Home Army activist, Janina Szczerska had to face a reality that was increasingly incompatible with her values. The 1950/51 school year proved to be particularly difficult. As a result of an inspection of the curriculum carried out at that time, numerous objections concerning the functioning of the institution were raised – the authorities cited for example insufficient time spent by students and young people from workplaces. In June 1951 Janina Szczerska received a warning, and on 30 September that year she was dismissed from her position of the headmistress. 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 and returned to her post until her retirement in 1966. She died in 1981, aged 83. She was buried in the Alley of the Distinguished at the Central Cemetery in Szczecin.

Anna Lew-Machniak