was born in Lublin on 21 October, 1921. Even as a schoolgirl, she was writing poems and short stories. After the German invasion of Poland, she became active in the resistance to German occupation, the Polish Border Protection Corps (KOP).
She was 19 years old on 8 May 1941, when she and her father went to the Gestapo office to visit her sister Apolonia, aged 21, who was being held there. Grażyna was arrested on the spot.
The Gestapo deported her to the Ravensbrück concentration camp via the Lublin transport of 12 September 1941. She was given prisoner number 7714 and put to work weaving straw sandals. There were often hours spent standing to attention, during which time she would compose poetry. Her fellow prisoners learnt many of her texts by heart to distract themselves from their torment.
On 18 April 1942, Grażyna Chrostowska, her sister Apolonia and other Polish women and girls were shot. 
 Their names are recorded in one of the lists smuggled out of the camp. Some of her poems were also found when the glass jar was dug up.

(married name: Romanowiczowa)
 was born on 18 October 1922 in Radom. During the war she was active in the Polish Resistance as a liaison officer (ZWZ, Union of Armed Struggle).
She was 18 years old when she was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1941 and held in prison in Kielce. From spring 1942, Zofia Górska was detained at Ravensbrück. Her prisoner number was 10 218 and, among other duties, she was required to prepare furs in the furriery. In 1944, she was transferred into a factory squad at Neu-Rohlau near Karlsbad. Until her liberation she worked there doing forced labour for the Messerschmidt company.
Zofia Górska survived the camp and moved to Paris, where she was able to catch up with her school-leaving exams in 1946 and later, with the help of a grant from the Polish-Catholic Mission, to study Romance languages and literature at the Sorbonne. Together with Kazimierz Romanowicz, whom she married in 1948, she ran a bookshop and a publishing house. They founded the Galerie Lambert, which became a major centre for Polish exiles.
Zofia Górska-Romanowiczowa published newspaper articles, translated and wrote award-winning novels. In 1976, she signed Memorandum 59, an open letter from Polish intellectuals protesting against the Communist Party in Poland, whose changes to the Polish constitution had made them guilty of human rights violations.
Zofia Górska-Romanowiczowa died on 28 March 2010 in Lailly en Val, near Orleans. Her poetry was also found in the smuggled collection.

(also known as Golcz)
 was born on 20 September 1901 in Warsaw. During the Second World War, she worked as a teacher in Warsaw and was an active member of the Underground.
She had just turned 40 when, on 23 September 1941 she was transported from Pawiak prison in Warsaw to Ravensbrück. Her husband had already been killed at that point; he was shot in Katyń. She had to leave her little daughter Zofia behind.
In Ravensbrück, Halina Golczowa was given prisoner number 7591. She was secretly trying to encourage young girls to study, giving them lessons and teaching them to hold fast to the love of their home country, Poland. Later, she was made to do forced labour at an armaments firm in Neubrandenburg, where there was an external branch of the Ravensbrück camp. The camp inmates were required to produce aeroplane parts in the factory’s “mechanical workshops”. She contracted rheumatism and lost an eye due to the combination of heavy work and conditions in the camp.
Halina Golczowa survived thanks to the help of her fellow prisoners. She was fortunate enough to be able to return to her daughter in Poland, but was completely blinded after an eye operation. After her return, she did a lot of charitable work for the old and infirm and for the “resettled” and “homecomers from the east” returning to Warsaw. She also wrote poetry for children, worked for children’s newspapers including Świerszczyk [The Cricket] and Płomyczek [The Little Flame] and even published an entire anthology. In the last years of her life, she was cared for by Olga Dickman, a friend from their time in Ravensbrück.
Halina Golczowa died on 22 October 1963 of the illnesses caused by the camps. Her poems were found in the collection.
Her poem "Die Nachtschicht" [The Night Shift],
has been set to music and can be heard in the online exhibition "Du bist anders? Jugendliche in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus" [“You’re different? Young People in the National Socialist Period”.]

was born on 28 October 1917 in Warsaw. In 1935, she began an art degree. When German troops marched into Warsaw in September 1939, Maria’s father was killed in the heavy bombardment.
She was arrested by the Gestapo on 19 April 1941; a year later, she was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her prisoner number was 10 219 and she was made to do heavy work including moving barrows of sand from one heap to another for reasons of sheer harassment. Later, she had to work in the camp furriery preparing furs, and she also worked weaving straw sandals. The long day and night shifts made her ill.
In Ravensbrück, Maria Hiszpañska-Neumann made more than 400 drawings. Her comrades gave her the affectionate nickname of “myszka” (Mousie) – she signed her pictures with a little mouse. Most were lost or had to be destroyed so that the SS would not find them. In 1943, Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann was transferred to Neubrandenburg, an external Ravensbrück camp, where she was required to produce aeroplane parts in the “mechanical workshops.
After the war, Maria Hiszpañska-Neumann was able to return to Warsaw. She worked as a graphic designer and her projects included making woodcut book illustrations. As memories of Ravensbrück followed and tormented her, even in her sleep, she began to make drawings of her time in the camp from memory.
Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann died on 12 January 1980 in Warsaw. The smuggled documents included one of her drawings, dating from 1943.