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So now with nothing in your mother’s way she met
a certain young man, who was serving his third year
in the army and, after being discharged and obtaining
employment in the railways, he married her. From that
time on your mother no longer worried about you and
she later had other children 9 .
Here end the traces of Stefan Banach’s mother. E. Jakimowicz’
further investigation into the archives of the
Cracow diocese brought no results. Later in an extract of
a letter from Stefan Greczek, it is written:
Your foster mother, a noble and good woman, who had
no children of Her own, raised you and loved you like
her own child. With a no-good husband, who she knew
would not provide for her when she became elderly and
could no longer work, she did not want to become a
burden on society. That is why she took in a niece and
you to bring up believing that one of you would give her
shelter in her old age. However, she was never a burden
to anyone because she was taken early by God.
Your foster mother was proud of you. You were a
healthy and attractive child. Mien, the photographer,
took pictures of you in different poses and these served
for his advertisements. People would stop at his exhibition
and admire the beautiful child. As a result of that
Mien became famous around time. All the ladies came
to him to be photographed and to have their children
photographed. In the meantime you were growing up
and after 6 years you went to school. You were a good
student and every year advanced to a higher level unit
until you completed grammar school. Your mother,
with chest puffed out, was delighted that her Stefek was
such a good student. As I watched your upbringing I
saw no reason to interfere and give your mother advice,
because everything was progressing as it should. You
were provided an excellent living standard because your
mother took such good care of you. Your clothes, shoes,
underwear, were always of the best quality. Textbooks
you also had. If your mother had neglected you, did not
take care of you and did not send you to school, be assured,
I would have taken you to my house and sent you
to attend school. But your mother did that on my behalf.
Such was the will of God Almighty and He would most
certainly have credited her with this good deed.
At the time of your high school graduation (your)
mother said to me: you have to provide Stefek with a
nice suit for this graduation. And so, you and I went to
see a tailor, you chose the material, the tailor measured
you and in a week’s time the suit was ready. I paid a
sum of 100 crowns for the suit. That was a lot of money
at the time. I could have taken you to a Jewish tailor
and bought a ready-made suit for 20 crowns, because
that is what ready-made suit cost. But I did not so, because
honours would not allow that. 10
The secret of Banach’s origin, described in the written
fragments from Stefan Greczek’s letter, was made clearer
to the family during War World II when Stefan Greczek
moved to Lvov with other members of the family. It
was then that Antonina, Stefan Banach’s stepsister, got
Fig. 3. Facsimile of the rough draft (initial page only) of the letter
from Stefan Greczek to Stefan Banach.
History
to know his family. A letter from Stefan Banach to Stefan
Greczek on October 21, 1943, which has been lost,
showed that Stefan Banach had a falling out with his father.
We can sense the pain in their relationship within
the bitter reply from Stefan Greczek on October 30,
1943, which begins as follows (see Fig. 3):
In answer to your letter of the 21st of this month:
The fourth commandment of God is: “Honour your
father and your mother, that your days may be long
and that you may prosper.”
This is not limited to honour only some but all parents.
How did you honour me in this letter? You did not
write dearest father, or father, or anything. (…)
The matter of your birth is as follows: 11
9 From the letter of 30 October 1943, quoted after E. Jakimowicz,
A. Miranowicz (eds.), Stefan Banach …, op. cit., p. 47.
10 E. Jakimowicz, A. Miranowicz (eds.), Stefan Banach …, op.
cit., p. 48.
11 Ibidem, p. 45 and 47
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