Józef Czechowicz

The museum was inaugurated on 9 September 1968, on the 29th anniversary of Czechowicz's tragic death. Originally, it was situated at 10 Narutowicza St. Since 9 September 2002 the exhibitions of the museum are accessible to the public in an old tenement building at 3 Złota St. (in the Old Town).

As Alina Kowalczykowa indicates, in the poetry volume nuta człowiecza Czechowicz envisioned himself being "struck by a bomb." Having heard about the outbreak of World War II, Czechowicz left Warsaw and returned to his native Lublin. He was convinced that being outside the capital city would keep him safe. On 9 September 1939, between 9 and 10 a.m., he was at a barber's shop at 46 Krakowskie Przedmieście St. when the building was bombarded and he died.

He also worked as a journalist and an editor of newspapers and magazines based in Lublin. He followed this occupation after he moved to Warsaw in 1933. He belonged to the Polish Teachers' Union and supported many of his writing friends, with both finances and publishing. He would take care of a group of poets who used to live at 9 Dobra St: Henryk Domiński, Wacław Mrozowski and Bronisław Ludwik Michalski. While he was living in Warsaw, he developed friendships with poets such as Czesław Miłosz and Anna Świrszczyńska.

While his first volume of verse, kamień (stone) was printed in 1927, it is considered that he officially made his debut, publishing in the first issue of Reflektor the poetic prose story "Opowieść o papierowej koronie" (A Story of a Paper Crown), whose protagonist is Henryk, a disappointed homosexual lover who has attempted suicide.

In 1913 Czechowicz went to a Russian primary school in Lublin and graduated from the First Seven-Form City School in 1917. During the Polish-Soviet War, in 1920, he volunteered to join the Polish Army but later came back home to continue his education. The poet attended the Teacher’s College, the Higher Teacher’s Course in Lublin and completed his education in 1929, graduating from the Institute of Special Pedagogy in Warsaw.

Józef Czechowicz came from a poor family living in Lublin. He was born in a basement flat, which has not survived to these days, at 3 Kapucyńska Street. His father, Paweł Czechowicz, worked as a janitor and, later, as a meter leader in the Warsaw Bank in Lublin. In 1912, he died due to a severe mental disease. Józef Czechowicz's mother, Małgorzata, née Sułek, was a good-natured person of a tiny posture. 10 years older than her husband, she died in 1936. The poet dedicated many of his poems to her. Apart from Józef, Paweł and Małgorzata had three more children: Janek, Katarzyna and Stanisław.

Józef Czechowicz (15 March 1903 – 9 September 1939) was an avant-garde Polish poet. Known as a nostalgic, catastrophic author, he was also the leader of the literary avant-garde and bohemians in Lublin. For this visionary poet, verse seemed to be a question of imagination; he would play with word consonances, dreamlike associations, musicality, and create picturesque visions. Czechowicz lived and worked in Lublin before moving to Warsaw; he also tragically died in Lublin, a few days after World War II had started.