Quick Facts
Biography
Jadwiga Szubartowicz (née Skawińska; born 16 October 1905), is a Polish supercentenarian at the age of 111 years, 216 days.
Life
Szubartowicz was born on 16 October 1905 in Lublin which was then part of Congress Poland of the Russian Empire (today in south-east Poland). As a child, she spent several years with her family in Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd), where at the age of 12 she witnessed the October Revolution. She graduated from the Ursuline Sisters High School and completed pedagogical studies with her sister.
During the German occupation her brother was arrested. After being detained for a week at the Majdanek concentration camp, he was released but was later arrested by the Germans in Kraków and sent to the concentration camp in Buchenwald, where he died. She witnessed how the painting Battle of Grunwald by Jan Matejko was moved in order to hide it from the Germans.
In 1952 she married the soldier Antoni Szubartowicz, a veteran of the Battle of Monte Cassino.
On 1 August 2015, following the death of Jadwiga Młynek (1905–2015), Szubartowicz became the oldest Pole. The older Yisrael Kristal was born in what is now Poland, but moved to Israel after World War II. Szubartowicz's age was certified by the Gerontology Research Group who sent her greetings on her 110th birthday which she celebrated on 16 October 2015.
On 7 March 2017, on the occasion of International Women's Day, the President of Lublin Krzysztof Żuk presented her the medal commemorating the 700th anniversary of the city. At the celebration, the musician Dariusz Tokarzewski played and sang the song Dwieście lat (Two Hundred Years), a variation on the Polish birthday song Sto lat (One Hundred Years).
In early April 2017, Szubartowicz was honored with an official visit by Stanisław Budzik, archbishop of Lublin. Although she had only recently recovered from pneumonia, she was in good spirits and enjoyed a chat with the archbishop.