Halina Konopacka (1900-1989)

Biography after World War II

On September 2, 1941, they came to New York. After the capture of Poland by the Soviet army, they could not return to the country. Matuszewski and Floyar-Rajchman co-founded the Piłsudski Institute in New York and the National Committee of Americans of Polish Descent, which soon became the largest Polonia organization in the USA. Matuszewski's life ended shortly after the war. According to Cenckiewicz, "after years of exceptional public activity, repressions from Sikorski and Mikolajczyk, surveillance of the FBI and secret Soviet intelligence operations aimed at him, Colonel Matuszewski suddenly died of a heart attack on August 3, 1946. His body was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in New York." . Konopacka remarried three years later. "I do not know if you remember Szczerbiński, from furniture, brother Zdzisia from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Next week, he will marry Halina Matuszewska, "wrote the poet Jan Lechoń in a letter to the editor of the London „Wiadomości” by Mieczysław Grydzewski. Konopacka knew Szczerbiński from the time of tennis tournaments in Milanówek. He was a co-owner of the furniture company "Szczerbiński". Then he sailed on the ship MS Pilsudski. In 1941 he found himself in the United States. His brother, a former diplomat, settled in Lisbon, where he headed the branch of Radio Free Europe. Konopacka herself, through the intermediary of Free Europe, gave wishes to friends in the country. As part of Christmas Eve wishes from 1955, she said: "I did not break up with sport. I ran a ski school here for several years and had a ski shop. I'm skiing now and I play tennis. I am currently running a tailor shop near New York. " Szczerbiński died in 1959. Then he moved to the town of Sebastian in Florida. As Rotkiewicz writes, "she developed her painting skills, which she inherited from her father". She founded her own studio, mainly painted flowers, as well as landscapes and still life. "It is so spontaneous and so fascinating, it is the ability to pour the soul onto the canvas" - she said. As a painter, she used the pseudonym Helen George. Her paintings were shown at exhibitions, sold and had good reviews in the American press. Three times in the post-war period she came to the Polish People's Republic - in 1958, and also in 1970 and 1975. "Because of Matuszewski's political past and his participation in the war with the Bolsheviks, her stay in the country was not publicized. This changed only in 1975, when - as it turned out later - Konopacka visited Poland for the last time "- writes Łukasz Cegliński on his blog.