The next heroine of the Project Archive is here: Helena Śmigla (née Kus) – dressmaker, embroiderer, farmer and market trader from Wiśniowa. Helena was born and lived all her life in Wiśniowa, where she worked on the family farm.
Helena Śmigla (née Kus) – dressmaker, embroiderer, farmer and market trader from Wiśniowa. Helena was born and lived all her life in Wiśniowa, where she worked on the family farm. She was the third generation to carry on the tradition of tailoring and embroidery, after her grandmother and mother (Anna Kus), who made typical Wiśniowa corsets as well as standard sewing. Before the Second World War, as a young girl, Helena went to work for a local Jewish woman who ran a fabric shop. Together they traded at local fairs. “Well, I learned something about being a seamstress. And my mother and I used to sew, and people would bring material and whoever wanted what kind of clothes, they’d bring it and show us how to sew it, how to cut the material. And people were terribly happy that there was such a thing and that we were doing it. When they burned the house down, God, what was that like – you couldn’t live through that.”
We invite you to explore alle of the Helena’s archives HERE.