Izabela „Czajka” Stachowicz

was a writer, resistance soldier, policewoman, muse, patron, protector of artists. She lived from 1893 to 1969. She was immortalized by the Polish writer Witkacy in his novel “Pożegnanie Jesieni” [Farewell to Autumn] as the demonic Jewish heiress Hela Bertz. To Polish writer Maria Dąbrowska, she was a “mythomaniac”, while Jan Kott, the Polish theatre critic, referred to her more euphemistically as a “surrealist”.