On one of the weekends in January 2020, about 70 employees and volunteers of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe, from three decades, celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Foundation in Krzyżowa. Everyone was asked to send their souvenir photos from the time they worked in Krzyżowa. The meeting organizers wanted to prepare a presentation of these photographs for a festive evening. In numerous photos from the 90s you could see Ewa Unger among colleagues. It was understandable, at that time she was the chairman of the foundation's board and at the same time she worked socially in the Foundation's office in Wrocław and regularly participated in working session, meetings and public events in Krzyżowa. Participants of the jubilee meeting gave Ewa Unger written wishes and greetings, which reached her in the form of a several-page letter. The recipient read these words in full awareness, several times, with joy, although she did not know all the authors personally. Today we know that this letter was a symbolic farewell and thanks - thanks for 30 years of existence of the institution that would not have been possible without Ewa Unger, one of the great, important and distinguished women in the history of Krzyżowa.
[FOTO: Marek Aureliusz Pędziwol]
Ewa Elżbieta Unger was born on October 20, 1926 in Królewska Huta (since 1934 Chorzów).
She was brought up in a Polish family of assimilated Jews. Her mother came from Vienna, which is why Ewa and her older brother Stefan grew up interacting with German language. After the outbreak of World War II, the family fled to Lviv, from where in the summer of 1940 she was deported to Siberia to a labor camp, where she worked hard at felling the forest. After being liberated from the camp, the family ended up in one of the collective farms in Kazakhstan. As a result of deportation and war, Ewa lost her father and brother.
In April 1946, mother and daughter can return to Poland, Wrocław became their new home. Both women were baptized and became practicing Catholics. Ewa Unger passed her final exams at the evening high school, graduated, and in 1960 took the title of doctor of natural sciences. She worked in various positions at the university and in laboratories.
In 1974, she decided to resign from further work at the university in favor of full-time involvement in the work of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK) in Wrocław. Ewa Unger has belonged to the club since its founding in 1958 and quickly became its active member fulfilling various functions on the board.
Thanks to her openness and knowledge of German, she was a support for guests from both parts of Germany, who had been looking for contacts in Wroclaw since the 1960s, to jointly attempt to build a new language and understanding between Poles and Germans. This resulted in various contacts, and above all long-term cooperation with the Dortmund group from the Circle of Bensberg. At the beginning of the 1980s, during the martial law and the shortage of food and medicine in Poland, the parishes from Dortmund very effectively supported the residents of Wrocław by donations. Ewa Unger has always been at the center of these activities.
For many years she was the vice-chairman and secretary of the board of KIK, and in 1988-1990 she was the director of the Club. During this period, KIK was involved in saving and taking over the palace complex in Krzyżowa in order to create an international meeting house there. Ewa Unger became one of the key figures forming the later Krzyżowa Foundation Mutual Understanding in Europe.
In September 1990, the first Council of the newly founded Krzyżowa Foundation was formed, which chose Ewa Unger as its head. In the following years, she co-created and designed the Foundation's work. It couldn’t go without problems and conflicts. In her speech at the solemn opening of the International Youth Meeting Center in Krzyżowa in June 1998, she highlighted:
“Creating a reconstruction plan and translating it into specific tasks and actions so as to fit within the time and costs provided, despite all the difficulties associated with it, was an easier part of the problem of building the International Meeting Center. A more difficult task, in a way even breakneck, was to match the perceptions and expectations of people from such different environments, with different experiences and habits”. Mutual understanding was particularly important at this stage of the Foundation's development. To a large degree, it was thanks to the enormous effort of Ewa Unger, mediating between languages and cultures, that so much has been achieved.
Unfortunately, in 2003, the Foundation experienced a crisis that could not be overcome through dialogue and discussion. The roads of the Krzyżowa Foundation and its long-term chairman diverged.
Involved in the mission of Krzyżowa, Ewa Unger participated in 2004, 2009 and 2014 in anniversary masses in Krzyżowa commemorating the Mass of Reconciliation in 1989. She was one of the guests of honor during the grand opening of the permanent exhibition "Courage and Reconciliation" with the participation of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz in November 2014. The words of Ewa Unger as the ambassador of Polish-German reconciliation after World War II are quoted on one of the boards of the exhibition: "Hate. I understand her reason, but that does not mean that she should be awake”.
For her activities she received high state decorations awarded by Poland and Germany, as well as by the commune of Świdnica, the city of Wrocław and the Lower Silesian Voivodeship.
Ewa Unger died on March 15, 2020 in Toruń surrounded by the care of loved ones. Funeral ceremonies were held on March 21, 2020 in Wrocław. She was buried in the family grave in the cemetery at Bujwida Street in Wrocław (field 7, row 8). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the funeral could only take place in a small group. Mourning and memorial celebrations for Ewa Unger are planned at a later date.
A publication on the life and activities of late Ewa Unger is being prepared. If you would like to share your personal memories, letters, texts or photos, please send them to Annemarie Franke or contact her via the address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
With the Loved Ones and Friends of Ewa Unger, we unite in a sense of regret and loss, but at the same time gratitude for her contribution to the work of Polish-German reconciliation.
Dr. Annemarie Franke - Supervisory Board of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe
