Stefania Wilczyńska
Stefania "Stefa" Wilczyńska (26 May 1886 – 6 August 1942) was a Polish educator who was murdered in the Holocaust. She was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Warsaw, trained as a teacher and was educated at the University of Liège in Belgium and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. She returned to Warsaw and worked at a Jewish orphanage, later becoming its director.
Also recorded as Stefania Wylczinska
Stefania Wilczyńska
Nieznany/unknown · Maria Falkowska, Kalendarz życia, działalności i twórczości Janusza Korczaka, "Nasza Księgarnia", Warszawa 1989 · Public domain
- Name
- Stefania Wilczyńska
- Born
- 26 May 1886
- Birthplace
- Warsaw, Poland
- Died
- 6 August 1942
- Place of death
- Treblinka
- Occupation
- teacher, social activist
- Nationality
- Poland
- Fields
- pedagogue
- Education
- University of Liège · University of Geneva
- Honours
- Silver Cross of Merit
- Languages
- Polish
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Stefania Wilczyńska. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q9345540 · wikipedia · Stefania Wilczyńska
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
She met Dr. Janusz Korczak in 1909 and went to work at his Jewish orphanage. She was the main educator in his orphanages. Besides looking after the day-to-day operation of the orphanage, she also organized fundraising activities in support of the orphanage. During World War I, Korczak was called up for military service and Wilczyńska had to manage the orphanage by herself. In the interwar period she published several articles in the magazines about child care published by CENTOS. Wilczyńska visited Palestine in 1934 and 1937. Arrangements were made for her to leave Poland after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, but she declined and moved with the orphanage to the Warsaw Ghetto. In August 1942, as part of the Kinderaktion, residents of Jewish orphanages were deported to the gas chambers at Treblinka. Korczak, Wilczyńska and the staff of the orphanage were given the option of avoiding the deportation, but chose to remain with the orphans. A plaque dedicated to the memory of Wilczyńska has been placed at the original site of the orphanage.
Stefania Wilczynska
Spots of Light - Women in the Holocaust
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Stefania Wilczyńska • Born — 26 May 1886 • Birthplace — Warsaw, Poland • Died — 6 August 1942 • Place of death — Treblinka • Occupation — teacher, social activist
Documentary record
Stefania Wilczyńska (1886 – 6 August 1942) is described as an educationalist in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. The birth of Stefania Wilczyńska is recorded in 1886 in Warsaw, and the death on 6 August 1942 in Treblinka.
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.
Warsaw.
Birth place
Treblinka extermination camp.
Death place
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Stefania Wilczyńska, revision 1354672153 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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.Skalska, Agata. Stefania Wilczyńska – the Woman behind Korczak!?. Педагогика. 95. 2. 168–179. 2023. 0861-3982.
- 2.Jewish Historical Institute. Ms. Stefania — Janusz Korczak's Closest Associate.
- 3.In the Shadow of Janusz Korczak — The Story of Stefania Wilczynska. The Melton Journal. 8, 15. Spring 1990.
- 4.Martin, Sean. How to house a child: providing homes for Jewish children in interwar Poland. East European Jewish Affairs. 45. 1. 26–41. 2015-01-02. 1350-1674.
- 5.The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Stefania Wilczynska. Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust.
- 6.Webb, Chris. The Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance. Columbia University Press. 302. 2014. 978-3838265469.
- 7.Winstone, Martin. The Holocaust Sites of Europe: An Historical Guide. I.B.Tauris. 190. 2010. 978-0857730282.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- University of LiègeOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
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 26 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Štefan ŽáryAuthor
- Stefan ŻeromskiAuthor
- Stefan ZweigAuthor
- Ștefana Velisar TeodoreanuAuthor
- Stefanie ZweigAuthor
- Stefano BakonyiAuthor
- Stefano Benedetto PallavicinoAuthor
- Stefano BenniAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Stefania Wilczyńska?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.