The items from the collection can be chronologically divided into those of the pre-war period, the years of war and occupation and the post-war period.

The first group consists of school reports and identity cards, cards confirming the belonging to youth unions and associations, including Towarzystwo “Sokół” [the “Falcon” Society], as well as a scout ID card and a student card, a student book from the Faculty of Law, Social and Economic Science at the University of Lublin (currently the John Paul II University of Lublin) from 1919, a master’s degree diploma in Law obtained at John Casimir University of Lwow and certificates of completion of different courses. The identity card of Helena Błeszyńskam issued on October 2, 1916, by Helena Czarniecka – the superior of the Female Philological High School of Helena Czarniecka is the oldest record in the collection. In several documents we can find photographs presenting young Helena Błeszyńska. Materials from later period document her professional activity including work at the Lublin District School Board which, according to the agreement, she started on October 1, 1925. The above-mentioned materials are a source of knowledge about Helena Błeszyńska but they also provide a lot of information about pre-war Lublin.

The second group of documents consists of items from the years of occupation. Among them, we can find certificates of employment of Helena Pawluk in the landed properties of Radlin and Matczyn, an identity card of the employee of the Central Welfare Council in Lublin and an identity card of the manageress of the bakery “Plon” [Crop] situated in Lublin in Bychawska Street. The latter released the owner from the forced labour. The most valuable acquisition from the collection obtained is the set of documents relating to the arrest and imprisonment of Helena Pawluk in the Majdanek concentration camp and then in the Lublin Castle. The most unique item is the indictment of Helena Pawluk, drawn up by the German prosecutor for the Special Court in Lublin (Sondergericht) which informs us that the accused had helped a Jewish prisoner (doctor Naum Pryłucki) to escape from Majdanek and then was hiding him for five days in Radlin.

As we can find out from the letters written by the accused from prison and addressed to her sister Róża Błeszyńska and her sons Marek and Stanisław, Helena was sentenced to death for her action. She was to be expecting the sentence in prison. However, before she was sent there, she stayed in the Majdanek concentration camp from October 23, 1943, when she was arrested, until January 7, 1944. It is confirmed by postcards sent from Majdanek. The letters written in March and April 1944 in the Castle inform us that she was moved there due to the support of her family who applied for a pardon or at least for the postponement of the execution. These letters are a great source of information about the conditions in the prison. They described among others the relationship between prisoners and prison staff.

Helena Pawluk fortunately survived the prison and was released on July 22, 1944. Shortly after, she started working as a driver. It is confirmed by a membership card of the Union of Professional Drivers and Automobile Workers of Lublin Province in Lublin where she lived until 1954. She left the city because of fear of being arrested and moved permanently to Warsaw where she died in 1994, at the age of 95. In accordance with her will, she was buried in the “old” Powązki Cemetery.

Apart from documents, the Museum also received personal items belonging to Helena Pawluk. A hand-made cloth pouch comes from the period when Helena was in prison. She wore it on the belt and kept in it the most valuable things such as stationery, a pencil, envelopes and postage stamps, a picture with the image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa and a metal box with aspirin. The pouch also contained two small messages smuggled out of prison which were supposedly sent to her family. Helena Pawluk also kept a canvas fluchtpunkt. She was marked with it in the Majdanek concentration camp as a prisoner suspected of intending to escape.

In the group of the documents coming from the post-war period, we can find among others a certificate confirming her stay in the Lublin Castle prison issued in August 1944 by Ludwik Christians who was a proxy of the Polish Red Cross board in Lublin. There are also numerous witness statements confirming the conspiratorial activity of Helena Pawluk, such as providing food to partisans from the Armia Krajowa (Home Army), organizing first aid stations in forests in Janów, providing refuge for those who were resettled from Pomerania and Greater Poland and above all helping Dr. Pryłucki to escape from Majdanek. This last fact and the death sentence are confirmed notarially by Maksymilian Filiński who was a prosecutor of the Supreme Court in Lublin in September 1946. In the collection we can also find a veteran identification card and cards that confirm obtaining state decorations. We can also find the decorations themselves, such as the Auschwitz Cross, the Freedom and Victory Medal and the Grunwald Badge.

The collection obtained is an invaluable source of knowledge about the functioning of the camp and the prison in Lublin. Above all, it allows to tell and illustrate the story of an extraordinary person, who Helena Pawluk was.