In Baranavichy, the well-known Polish public figure in Belarus, Elżbieta Dołęga-Użoszek, passed away , as reported by Andżelika Borys, former head of the Union of Poles in Belarus. She was 95 years old.
Elżbieta Dołęga-Użoszek with Andżelika Borys. Photo: facebook.com/andzelika.borys
“A year ago, on March 31, I was with Ms. Elżbieta in Baranavichy. She was the founder of the Tadeusz Rejtan Polish Public School in Baranavichy — the first educational institution of its kind in Belarus. A very deserving person for Polish identity in Belarus,” wrote Andżelika Borys.
Elżbieta Dołęga-Użoszek was born on September 7, 1930, in the city of Mława near Warsaw, but spent her childhood and youth in Baranavichy, where she attended the Polish primary school named after Maria Konopnicka (liquidated after World War II).
In 1954, she enrolled in the Faculty of Linguistics (Germanic and Romance studies) at the Institute of Foreign Languages in Minsk. In the 1960s, she settled again in Baranavichy, where she worked as a teacher.
In the 1980s, she was at the forefront of the Polish national revival in the city and Baranavichy district. At her initiative, a public Polish school was established in Baranavichy (later named after Tadeusz Rejtan), and she herself became its director. Classes initially took place in her home. For a long time, she led the city and district structures of the Union of Poles in Belarus.
Elżbieta's mother, Teresa Dołęga-Użoszek, saved Jews from the Nazis during the war and received the title Righteous Among the Nations from Israel. Teresa Selivonchik, Elżbieta's daughter, continued her mother's work, taking over from her the directorship of the Polish school in Baranavichy and the management of the local branch of the Union of Poles in Belarus.
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