Post by Laura Brown

With heavy hearts, Rick and I, and Handshouse Studio wish to honor the lives of Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka. Maria Piechotka recently passed on Nov 28, 2020 and her husband Kazimierz passed in 2010. The Handshouse Studio’s Gwozdziec Synagogue reconstruction for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was possible because of their work and research.

Maria Piechotka was interviewed in 2012 for Raise the Roof, a documentary film about the Gwozdziec Synagogue Project. In this segment, Maria tells about how she and Kazimierz met and began their life’s work together.

“We met as students. We got married during the Warsaw uprising.  Then we were together in the POW camp as prisoners of war.  Then we returned to Warsaw after the war, we finished our studies, and from that moment on, for 65 years straight, we worked together.  We worked as architects in an architectural office and, in parallel, we pursued the history of Polish architecture, and in particular, in the history of synagogues.

This interest of ours began before the war, when I was a first-year student in the department of architecture.  My husband was in his second year.   While attending Professor Oskar Sosnowski’s lectures, we saw for the first time the photographs of the wooden synagogues, which greatly interested us.  

Then, World War II broke out.  Professor Sosnowski perished.  Professor Szymon Zajczyk also perished. Zajczyk was the leading scholar of the architecture of synagogues in the department of architecture.  And all of the wooden synagogues perished. 

That these very interesting and very precious objects existed, and stopped existing.  That if we didn’t capture this at this given instant, if, God forbid, these materials would be damaged, then a huge chunk of  culture, European culture, world culture, would be completely forgotten.  

And then we made, so to speak, the first step, that is, we collected all possible materials accessible at the time.  And we published the first book, titled Wooden Synagogues.  This was in 1957.  And it was sent off into the world” -Maria Piechotka in an interview by Trillium Studios, Translation by Joanna Trzeciak

Maria and Kazimierz’s vision and courage to accomplish their first publication during Poland’s Communist period saved this rare historic documentation from being lost forever. They later published an expanded version called Heaven’s Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth which is the most comprehensive collection of the archival information documenting this genre of synagogues. 

During each Handshouse Studio wooden synagogue project class and workshop, we begin with a dedication to the Piechotkas and their priceless work. Their book is often open as students study the photographs and drawings and descriptions of the many synagogues. We cherish our copy of Heaven’s Gates. It is lovingly worn from extensive use during our many years of research and workshops. We could not have done what we did without them.

During our eleven years of research, Rick and I were very fortunate to have visited with Maria and Kazimierz at their home many times.

In 2007, Eleonora Bergman, former Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, arranged for a visit to the Piechotkas’ home, which also included Tom Hubka, author of Resplendent Synagogue, and his wife Judith. We enjoyed an afternoon of lovely cakes and tea along with invigorating discussions about wooden synagogues, particularly the Gwozdziec Synagogue Project. Maria and Kazimierz were both gracious and a little skeptical about our bold proposal to replicate a wooden synagogue. They were always open, charming, challenging, encouraging, and generous in sharing their immense knowledge and research with us. Sadly, Kazimierz passed before the Gwozdziec reconstruction commenced with the POLIN Museum in 2011. 

In July 2012, the 36 participants from the Gwozdziec Painting Workshop in Szczebrzeszyn, Poland had the honor of gathering and meeting Maria Piechotka at the opening of the exhibition at the Arkady Kubickiego in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. We presented Maria Piechotka with a full-scale painted wooden panel of lion from the Gwozdziec synagogue ceiling painting. Maria Piechotka shook each and every participant’s hand, sharing her gratitude and joy for their work.  

The last time we saw Maria was at the opening of the POLIN: Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. We had hoped we would get a chance to see her again to reflect on the research, discoveries, and inspirational, decade-long journey we made together. Speaking for all the active participants of the Handshouse Studio Gwozdziec Synagogue Project, we will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to meet Maria and Kazimierz, to have them challenge us, to take us under their wings, and to share their precious life’s work with us. 

At the opening of the Museum, Maria told me she and Kazimierz never believed their work would be so well received and she thanked us for the work we had done to celebrate this nearly lost history. I have never been so humbled in my life. Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka are Polish National Treasures. Their contribution to Poland and to the world is immeasurable.