Our Masters

Professor Andrzej Tomaszewski – the end of the journey

Ewa Święcka

Abstract

Andrzej Tomaszewski was born in Warsaw on January 26, 1934. He was the only child of Eugenia and Stanisław Antoni Tomaszewski. His father was a Polish Army officer. His happy childhood was short and when the war broke out the family was in Jarosław. His mother took him to some relatives, first to Puławy, then to Starachowice, and finally they returned near Warsaw. After the fall of Warsaw Uprising they went to the camp in Pruszków and then to the manor in Rybno. They spent the end of war and the first few years after the war in Chodzież where the young boy went to primary school. He was an active pupil and a scout. He had a great artistic talent and kept some of the school newsletters with his own drawings.

After his father returned to Poland from England in 1947, they all went back to their relatives near Warsaw, and then to their reclaimed family home in Rembertów. After attending a few schools during the war, Andrzej passed an exam to the famous Wladyslaw IV Secondary School in Praga in Warsaw. He was a very good student and in May 1951 at the age of 17 he passed the school final exams. He was very proud of the school’s tradition and of a number of his schoolmates who later became famous. He participated in the school’s graduates’ meetings and reunions until the end. Unfortunately, his father’s war engagement (he was a major in the Polish Army) was a political obstacle and prevented his dream studies. For a year, he worked as a drawer in the Commission on Research of Old Warsaw where he improved his artistic skills.

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