Helena Błażusiakówna

Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna (born c. 1927) was a Polish girl whose words were set to music by Henryk Górecki in his Symphony No. 3 Sorrowful Songs. She was from the vicinity of Zakopane, a town in the far south of Poland, and was a member of the Góral ("mountain dweller") community, which spanned the border with Czeckoslovakia in the Tatra mountains.

Under the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II, on September 26, 1944, the 18 year old Błażusiakówna was arrested and held in the Gestapo headquarters in Zakopane. During her imprisonment she scratched a short prayer into the wall of cell number 3, which was subsequently discovered by the Polish composer Henryk Górecki and set to music as the second movement of his Symphony No. 3 'Sorrowful Songs'.[1][2][3][4]

Later life

Błażusiakówna survived the war and was married in Wadowice in 1950.[5]

The prayer

The prayer which Błażusiakówna scratched into a cell wall during her imprisonment by the Gestapo. The signature read: Helena Wanda Blazusiakowna, aged 18, detained since 25 September, 1944.[3]

Helena Błażusiakówna's Prayer Scratched on the wall of cell No. 3
Gestapo Headquarters. Zakopane (1944)
Mother, do not cry, noMamo, nie płacz, nie.
Most pure, Queen of HeavenNiebios Przeczysta Królowo,
Protect me alwaysTy zawsze wspieraj mnie
Hail MaryZdrowaś Mario

Original text : The LiederNet Archive[6]

References
  1. Classic FM, Henryk Górecki: Symphony No.3 (‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’)
  2. McCusker, Eamonn. "Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs Archived 2007-06-07 at the Wayback Machine". CD Times. Retrieved on 19 June 2007.
  3. New York Times, 27 Feb 1994, Henryk Gorecki, By Jane Perlez
  4. Thomas, Adrian (1997). Górecki. Oxford Studies of Composers. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816394-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Genealogy.com, Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna
  6. The LiederNet Archive, Symphony no. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
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