Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980)

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, also known by his literary pseudonym Eleuter, was born to a Polish family in Kalnyk, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. Following the death of his father, he and his mother lived in Warsaw for two years, and then moved to Kiev. He graduated from secondary school there and enrolled at the Faculty of Law at the University of Kiev. In 1918, Iwaszkiewicz returned to Warsaw, where he joined a group of young artists associated with the Pro Arte et Studio magazine. With Julian Tuwim and Antoni Słonimski, he founded the Skamander group of experimental poets in 1919. He was a writer, poet, playwright, and translator. In 1922, he married Anna Lilpop, daughter of a wealthy industrialist, who was also a writer and translator. They had two daughters Maria and Teresa who both grew up to be writers. The family moved in 1928 to the Villa Stawisko in Podkowa Leśna, near Warsaw. They had a wide circle of friends and contacts in the Polish intelligentsia. During the Nazi Occupation of Poland in World War II, they hid many Jews and anti-Nazi Poles in their home, found them new shelters, and provided them with funds and false documents. Iwaszkiewicz participated in the Polish resistance and used the mansion as a center of Polish underground literature and art. After the war, he served as head of the Polish Writers' Union and in 1945–1949 and 1955–1957, he was literary manager of the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. For many years, beginning in 1956, he was chief editor of the monthly Twórczość (Creativity). He served as a nonpartisan member of the Polish Parliament from 1952 until his death in 1980. His major epic novel, Sława i Chwała (Fame and Glory) appeared in three volumes from 1956–1962. In 1988, he and his wife Anna were both recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations for their role in saving Jews from the Holocaust.