Testament to Norbert Barlicki (1880-1941)

Helena Tarnowicz-Barlicka was born in Warsaw in 1894, one of eight children in a large, traditional upper middle-class Polish family. With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the family found itself stranded in Moscow, and with the further outbreak of the October Revolution, they were not able to return to their homeland until the end of 1918. Helena relentlessly pursued her dream of becoming a physician. She started her studies in Moscow in 1917, but it was not until 1925 in Warsaw that she finally graduated with a doctorate. The most important person in her life outside of her family was Norbert Barlicki, the Polish publicist, lawyer and politician of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) who was executed by the Germans during the Second World War. The testament by Helena is brief but evocative. It speaks for itself. It gives us insight into the character and mindset of Norbert Barlicki, but even more so, insight into what an extraordinary individual was Helena herself. Illust., 28 pp. when printed.