Aleksander Zelwerowicz
Aleksander Zelwerowicz (14 August 1877 in Lublin – 18 June 1955 in Warsaw) was a Polish actor, director, theatre president and a teacher. He received the Order of Polonia Restituta and is one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.
Aleksander Zelwerowicz

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- Name
- Aleksader Zelwerowicz
- Born
- 14 August 1877
- Birthplace
- Lublin, Congress Poland
- Died
- 18 June 1955
- Place of death
- Warsaw
- Occupation
- Film and theatre actor, director
- Awards
- Order of Polonia Restituta Order of the Banner of Labour Cross of Merit Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland
- Nationality
- Poland
- Fields
- acting · directing
- Honours
- Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature · Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta · Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta · Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta · Work Flag Order and 1st class · Gold Cross of Merit
- Languages
- Polish
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Aleksander Zelwerowicz (14 August 1877 in Lublin – 18 June 1955 in Warsaw) was a Polish actor, director, theatre president and a teacher. He received the Order of Polonia Restituta and is one of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.
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Note VALÉORINE
Aleksander Zelwerowicz (1877–1955) was an actor, director and singer, among other activities, of Polish nationality. The actor was born in Lublin and died in Warsaw.
Aleksander Zelwerowicz worked for Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art and Stefan Jaracz Theatre. Activity centred on acting and directing.
Languages used include Polish. Honours include Gold Cross of Merit, Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature and Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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gnd · 1184920230 · wikidata · Q609407 · wikipedia · Aleksander Zelwerowicz
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is Polish. The field of work recorded is acting and directing. Employment is recorded with Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art and Stefan Jaracz Theatre. Distinctions recorded are Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta and Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Aleksander Zelwerowicz as Chamberlain in the comedy Mr. Jovial by Aleksander Fredro at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków
Wacław Szymborski

Aleksander Zelwerowicz and Ludwik Solski, two Polish actors at the Polish Radio
Zygmunt Januszewski · "Kulisy Radia" by Maciej Kwiatkowski published by Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe, Warszawa 1973 "Radio i świat" POlish weekly, issue 8/1949, Warsaw, Poland
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Aleksader Zelwerowicz • Born — 14 August 1877 • Birthplace — Lublin, Congress Poland • Died — 18 June 1955 • Place of death — Warsaw • Resting Place — Powązki Military Cemetery • Occupation — Film and theatre actor, director • Awards — Order of Polonia Restituta Order of the Banner of Labour Cross of Merit Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland • Illustration — Zelwerowicz and Ludwik Solski on Polish Radio, 1949
Biography
Biography
He was born in a tenement house at Rynek 3 in Lublin, in the family of Aleksander, a court commissioner, and Bronisława née Rydzewski. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother to Warsaw, where in 1886 he began his education at the Russian 4th Male Gymnasium with a classical profile. He failed the exams and had to leave school in 1890. Later he attended another school, from which he was expelled with a wolf ticket for frequenting garden theatres. After passing his matriculation exams at the Russian gymnasium in Orel, he studied at the Ludwik Kronenberg School of Commerce in Warsaw, and at the same time in the Class of Diction and Declamation at the Warsaw Music Society, from which he graduated in 1897. He made his debut as an amateur in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at the garden theatre in 1896 in Warsaw. After a year's stay and studies in Geneva, in 1899 he found himself in Łódź, in Michał Wołowski's team, who ran a permanent theatre stage "Victoria" at Piotrkowska street 67 (in later years the building was known as the "Polonia" cinema) and this was his first fully professional acting debut. After a one-year season (1899/1900) he moved to the Municipal Theatre in Kraków, where he performed until 1908. It was here that his comedic and character talent was revealed. Over the years, he expanded his repertoire to include dramatic roles, saturated with irony and sarcasm. His creative output includes around 900 roles. Zelwerowicz's acting art does not lend itself to clear definitions. A realist, he drew inspiration from various styles and trends: naturalism, modernism and expressionism, while retaining his own tone. A valued director, mainly of comedies by, for example, Fredro and Bliziński, he prepared about 280 performances. His most valued period of theatre work falls on the 1920/1921 season, when he was the director of the Municipal Theatre in Łódź. His team at that time included, among others, Stefan Jaracz and Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski. Later, he directed stages in Vilnius, the National Theatre in Warsaw. He also performed as a guest in Poznań, Vilnius and Lublin. He also directed and performed as a guest in Riga and Prague. Co-founder of Polish theatre education, in 1932 he led to the establishment of the State Institute of Theatre Art, the first Polish modern school educating actors and directors. He was the director of PIST in the years 1932–1936 and reactivated the Institute in Łódź after the war. • Illustration — Aleksander Zelwerowicz as Figaro in The Barber of Seville by Pierre Beaumarchais at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków Szczygla Street in Warsaw, where Zelwerowicz lived and helped hide Jews during the German occupation, before 1939 In 1940, due to harassment by the occupation authorities, he left the capital and stayed at the Uleniec estate near Grójec. From February 1941, he lived and worked at the Home for War Disabled People of the Polish Red Cross in Oryszew. He regularly came to Warsaw. He sent food parcels and money, helping to maintain the apartment at 9 Szczygla Street, where his daughter was hiding Jews, including Leon Feiner, a Bund activist and president of the Council for Aid to Jews "Żegota". In October 1944, Maria Nudel reached Zelwerowicz. He provided her with a hiding place until the end of the war. He got involved in organizing shelters for refugees from the Warsaw Uprising near Sochaczew. In 1949, he was a delegate of the National Council of Defenders of Peace to the Congress of Defenders of Peace in Paris. He died in Warsaw, buried with state honors on June 21, 1955 in the Alley of the Meritorious at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw (section A24-tuje-10). Before the funeral, the coffin with his remains was put on public display in the foyer of the Polish Theater. Tributes to the artist were paid by, among others, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party Edward Ochab, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party Jerzy Morawski, Deputy Chairman of the Council of State Stefan Ignar, Deputy Prime Minister Stanisław Łapot, Minister of Culture and Art Włodzimierz Sokorski, Head of the Office of the Council of Ministers Kazimierz Mijal, Secretary of the Council of State Marian Rybicki, Member of the Council of State Stefan Matuszewski, Chairman of the Presidium of the Capital National Council Jerzy Albrecht and Head of the Science Department of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party Stefan Żółkiewski, as well as outstanding actors of Warsaw stages Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, Wojciech Brydziński, Karol Adwentowicz, Seweryna Broniszówna, Nina Andrycz, Janina Romanówna, Jan Kreczmar, Marian Wyrzykowski. The speech at the grave on behalf of the authorities of the Polish People's Republic was delivered by the Minister of Culture and Art Włodzimierz Sokorski. The tombstone by Teresa Brzóskiewicz takes the form of a polished slab of dark granite decorated in the four corners with theatre masks. His memoirs Gawędy jego komunistanta (Gawędy najlepsze komunistanta, Warsaw, 1958) were published posthumously, in the volume O sztuki teatralnej. Artykuły - Wspomnienia - opinie z lat 1908–1954 (selection and editing by B. Osterloff, Wrocław 1993) and Listy (introduction, selection and editing by B. Osterloff, Warsaw 1999). In 1977 (posthumously), together with his daughter Helena Zelwerowicz-Orchoń, he received the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" awarded to people who saved Jews during the Holocaust by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute of Remembrance. Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Theatre Academy is named after him.
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
• Obrona Częstochowy (1913) • Ochrana warszawska i jej tajemnice (1916) • Huragan (1928) • A Strong Man (1929) • Księżna Łowicka (1932) • The Palace on Wheels (1932) • The Story of Sin (1933) • Two Joasias (1935) • Serce matki (1938) • Heather (1938) • The Line (1938) • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as Doc (1938, first Polish dub) • Doctor Murek (1939) • The Three Hearts (1939)
Career and activity
Career and activity
Aleksander Zelwerowicz worked in acting and directing.
Identity
Identity
Aleksander Zelwerowicz is recorded as having received Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1955
Aleksander Zelwerowicz died in 1955 at Warsaw.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Lublin.
Birth place
Warsaw.
Death place
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Aleksander Zelwerowicz received Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature, Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Work Flag Order, 1st class and Gold Cross of Merit.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q609407: Aleksander Zelwerowicz
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Aleksander Zelwerowicz”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1184920230, The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art. Department of Puppetry Art (Białystok).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Aleksander Zelwerowicz - his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website
- 2.Aleksander Zelwerowicz.
- 3.Aleksander Zelwwerowicz. Encyklopedia teatru polskiego (osoby).
- 4.Lipiec, Wanda. Zelwerowicz i scena łódzka. Wydawnictwo Łódzkie. 7. 1960.
- 5.Igor Śmiałowski, Igraszki z Melpomeną. Część wtóra; Warszawa 1979
- 6.Jagielski, Jan. Przewodnik po cmentarzu żydowskim w Warszawie przy ul. Okopowej 49/51. Z. 1, Kwatery przy Alei Głównej. Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami. Społeczny Komitet Opieki nad Cmentarzami i Zabytkami Kultury Żydowskiej w Polsce. 29–30. 1996. 83-90-66296-5.
- 7.sprawiedliwi.org.pl. Historia pomocy – Rodzina Zelwerowiczów.
- 8.Trybuna Robotnicza, nr 92 (1481), 9 kwietnia 1949, s. 1.
- 9.www.cmentarzekomunalne.com.pl. Wyszukiwarka cmentarna --- Warszawskie cmentarze.
- 10.Malczewski, Juliusz Jerzy. Cmentarz Komunalny Powązki dawny Wojskowy w. Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka. 35. 1989. 83-217-2641-0.
- 11.Malczewski, Juliusz Jerzy. Cmentarz komunalny (dawny Wojskowy) na Powązkach. Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza. 55. 1975.
- 12.Fundacja Instytut Studiów Strategicznych. Księga Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata. Ratujący Żydów podczas Holokaustu. Polska. Tom II. 872. 2009. 978-83-87832-59-9.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1184920230, The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art. Department of Puppetry Art (Białystok).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,589 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Aleksander KrupaPerson
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- Aleksandr AbdulovPerson
- Aleksandr AlovPerson
- Aleksandr AravinPerson
- Aleksandr ArkatovPerson
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