Jakubowska, Wanda

Born Oct. 10, 1907, in Warsaw. Polish motion-picture director. Member of the Polish United Workers’ Party since 1942.

Jakubowska studied in the art history department of the University of Warsaw. She helped found StART, an association of progressive film directors, in 1930. In 1939 she made a film version of E. Orzeszkowa’s novel On the Neman (never released). She took part in the Polish resistance movement and was an inmate of the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.

In 1948, Jakubowska completed her greatest work, The Last Stage, one of the first films about the fascist death camps. She also made the films Soldier of Victory (1953), The Confession (1955), Good-bye to the Devil (1956), King Matthias I (1958), The End of Our World (1964), and Hot Line (1965).

Jakubowska received the State Prize of the People’s Republic of Poland in 1953 and 1964.