Opening of the exhibition “Next Door to Pola Gojawiczyńska”

On 15 April (Wednesday), the exhibition “Next Door to Pola Gojawiczyńska” opened at the Museum of Literature. Organized as part of the Year of Pola Gojawiczyńska in Masovia, the event was part of the opening of the exhibition “Parnas Warszawy. 100th Anniversary of the Warsaw City Literary Award”.

2026 marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of Pola Gojawiczyńska, a native of Warsaw and an outstanding Polish writer and novelist with a good knowledge of working-class and petty-bourgeois circles. She is known above all as the author of the Warsaw diptych: “Girls from Nowolipki” and “Rajska jabłoń” (The Paradise Apple Tree). She was also an important figure in the literary life of the capital as it revived after the war. She belonged to the Polish Writers' Association and was a member of the pre-war ZZLP. She also sat on the board of the Polish PEN Club. She was twice awarded the Warsaw City Literary Award, first in 1935 and again in 1949. From 1962 she was a member of the All-Poland Peace Committee.

The Sejm of the Masovian Voivodeship declared 2026 the “Year of Pola Gojawiczyńska” in Masovia, at the initiative of the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw. Our institution has planned a series of events devoted to this unique figure, who was extremely important to the literary life of the capital, both before the war and as it revived after it.

The exhibition “Next Door to Pola Gojawiczyńska” presents Pola's life in the interwar years, when she lived on Brzozowa Street. Through film stills from the 1937 film “Girls from Nowolipki”, directed by Lejtas and based on Pola Gojawiczyńska's novel of the same title, we show the Warsaw of that time, especially its poorest districts. We also recall the difficult years of the Second World War, using her works to depict those times and the people she shared hardship with. We give particular attention to the novel “Krata”, which tells of the female prisoners of Pawiak. The book is based on her own experiences, as she was imprisoned there in 1943. We invite you to see the display of objects the Museum has gathered relating to the writer, including manuscripts, her printed debut works, photographs, posters, numerous book editions, and the medals and decorations she received in the postwar years. A leaflet accompanies the exhibition, introducing visitors to the writer, who is somewhat forgotten today but who has firmly secured her place in the history of 20th-century Polish literature.

We invite you to visit and to join curator-led tours (curator Grażyna Ryfka):

Saturday/Sunday at 2:00 p.m. „Next Door to Pola Gojawiczyńska”

Admission to the exhibition during the opening weekend (17–19 April) for a symbolic one złoty..