MARIA PAPA ROSTKOWSKA,

was born in Warsaw, where she studied architecture and fine arts. In 1943, she married Ludwik Rostkowski Jr, a young politician, Vice President of Polish Democratic Youth Organization (« Stronnictwo Demokratyczne »), a leading participant in saving the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto for which he was awarded the Medal of Rightful. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, she joined the Underground and actively participated in combats against the Nazis. After the War she was awarded the Medal of Virtuti Militari by the Polish Army. Her only child, Nicolas Rostkowski, was born in 1945. In 1947, she received a grant from the French Government, later renewed by UNESCO, to study and work in Paris.

1n 1950, she became a widow, her husband dying tragically in the Stalinist repression in Poland. She left Warsaw and was appointed Assistant Professor in the Fine Arts Department of Sopot University (Gdansk), from 1950 to 1953, and thereafter Associate Professot at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.