Designer of WWII Fighting Poland symbol born 97 years ago

Anna Smolenska, a member of Poland's WWII-era underground scouting and guiding movement who was killed in the Auschwitz Nazi German death camp in 1943, was born on February 28, 1920.

Archiwum, Fot. PAP/Leszek Szymański / Warszawa, 01.08.2015. Na Kopcu Powstania Warszawskiego na stołecznym Mokotowie, 1 bm. wieczorem zapalono ogień pamięci przyniesiony przez sztafetę pokoleń z Grobu Nieznanego Żołnierza. Uroczystość zakończyła sobotnie obchody 71. rocznicy wybuchu powstania warszawskiego. (cat) Archiwum, Fot. PAP/Leszek Szymański

In the first months of 1942 the underground Home Army (AK) command's information and propaganda bureau announced a competition for a symbol for the organisation. There were 27 entries, from which Anna Smolenska's design was chosen.

The symbol's legibility was a decisive factor, according to the Auschwitz Museum's historian Adam Cyra. "The symbol of Fighting Poland combined the letter P for Poland and W for fighting. It was relatively easy to reproduce", he said.

The two letters together form an anchor-like shape, hence the symbol is popularly referred to as Kotwica - the Anchor. The underground resistance first drew it on the walls of buildings in Nazi-occupied Warsaw on March 20, 1942.

Smolenska studied art history in underground University of Warsaw classes. She was arrested by the Germans in November 1942 together with her parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law.

Only the brother survived the war. Anna Smolenska was deported to Auschwitz with the other three women from her family. The Germans issued a death certificate for Anna on March 30, 1943, giving March 19 as the date of her death from "pleurisy".

The Auschwitz concentration camp was built by Nazi Germany in 1940 and enlarged two years later. Nazi Germany killed at least 1.1 million people there, including hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens, many of whom were Jewish by descent. (PAP)
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