Grażyna Chrostowska was born in Lublin on October 21, 1921. Already in her school years she writes poems and short stories. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, she becomes active in the resistance against the German occupation, the Polish Border Defense Corps (KOP). She is 19 years old when, on May 8, 1941, together with her father, she goes to the Gestapo post "Pod zegarem" (Gestapo: secret police in the German Reich) to visit her sister Apolonia, two years older than her, who is imprisoned there. Grażyna is arrested on the spot. With the Lublin transport of September 12, 1941, the Gestapo deports her to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. There she was given prisoner number 7714 and had to work in the straw shoe weaving factory. During the roll call, which often lasted for hours, she wrote poetry. Fellow prisoners memorize many of her texts to distract themselves from the torment. On April 18, 1942, men of the SS (Schutzstaffel, the Nazis' most important terror and oppression organization) shoot Grażyna Chrostowska along with her sister Apolonia and other Polish women and girls. She was 20 years old. Her poems were preserved because shortly before her execution she gave them to her friend Nina Iwanicka, who memorized them for fear of discovery, and later on in France published the poems in French.

See also: Grażyna Chrostowska's last poem

Obczyzna

Milczące rzędy szarych, niskich bloków
I niebo równie szare, szarzyzną bez nadziei. Gromada różnych ludzi, zapodzianych w mroku. Surowy obraz. Obcy. Za dużo milczenia.
W martwej pustce, po ciszy wlecze się tęsknota, W nocnych, ślepych zaułkach wałęsa się blada
I wzruszeniem się dławi mocna, głucha rozpacz – Słuchaj, to poza wszystkim wolne szumią lasy.
Czy jesteśmy, czy trwamy? Wciąż jeszcze ci sami – Istnienia swego nie czuję, nie widzę, nie śledzę. Na obcej, twardej ziemi zostawiamy ślady
Płytsze od bezpamięci,
Byliśmy tu i nic więcej.

Ravensbrück, 1942 [r.]

Aus: Grażyna Chrostowska: wiersze. W opracowaniu Barbary Oratowskiej i Jarosława Cymermana. Lublin 2017