Ławeczka Wandy Tazbir, Warsaw

Wanda Tazbir’s memorial takes the form of a bronze scout seated on a stone bench in the courtyard of the Institute for the Deaf. It commemorates the teacher, scout leader, Warsaw Rising fighter, and later Royal Air Force member who devoted her life to this community. She began working with the Institute’s scouts while still at school, before the war.

During the occupation, she trained volunteer nurses and taught in clandestine classes; she also rescued Jewish people, earning recognition as Righteous Among the Nations and honorary citizenship of Israel. After fighting in the Rising and enduring German prisoner-of-war camps, she entered the RAF in England. Back in Poland, she spent more than six decades guiding deaf scouts and training adult leaders.

Notice the papers on her lap: the hand gesture shown there says “I love you” in Polish Sign Language. At the statue’s feet, a stone mosaic carries the scouting fleur-de-lis and her years of birth and death. The large open book nearby presents her story in Polish, English, and Hebrew. The memorial was unveiled on the twenty-first of October two thousand seven, marking an anniversary of the Institute.