Portrait of Hanna Mickiewicz

It is a portrait of a young woman with combed back hair from before 1946. She has her left arm exposed and the right one covered with a drapery. The bust was coated with a patina of a particular mix of colors such as silver, brown and red.

The sculpture itself is an empty plaster cast. It is 55 cm tall, 68 cm wide and 45 cm deep.

The model that was chosen by Jan Szczepkowski for this piece was his daughter Hanna Barbara Mickiewiczowa (Szczepkowska before marriage). Hanna was born in 1915 in Cracow, but spent most of her adult life in Milanówek. Quickly after passing her high school finals she graduated from Urban School of Decorative Arts and Painting. During the occupation period, she was taking secret medical science courses. She got her father’s talent for sculpting.

After the outbreak of the second world war she joined the underground and began her work as a liaison for special tasks. She was under the command of Major Marian Drobik alias “Woodpecker” who was a deputy and later the chief of the Second Main Command Troop of the Union of Armed Struggle (later called Home Army). In late 1942, she was moved to work at the Industrial Studies Office of the Second Main Command of Home Army which her husband Adam Mickiewicz alias “Konrad” has been the chief of since October 1942. The Industrial Studies Office was preparing monthly reports based upon information collected from undercover agents from all over Europe. Subsequently the reports were sent to London, where they reached the Command-in-chief Staff. They mainly concerned Nazi’s (German Reich) arms industry. Among them we can find one of the most important achievements of Polish intelligence agency: discovering the production of German V1 and V2 type missiles. Thanks to that information allies were able to bomb the Experimental Center in Peenemuende in 1943 and suppress Hitler’s plan on destroying England.

After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Hanna Mickiewiczowa joined sanitary service. Only in 1991 she decided to disclose microfilms of the mentioned reports which she kept safe in secret. She decided to do so during the celebration of showcasing the statute commemorating the V1 and V2 action. It has been fifty years since the first of the reports was recorded. In 1978 Hanna opened a museum of Jan Szczepkowski in the family villa of the name “Waleria”. She died after suffering from long-lasting sickness on 26 September 2006 in Milanówek.