Feldstein (Felsztyn) Helena (04.11.1860, Lviv - 31.08.1925, Karlove Vary - social and independence activist, teacher.

Helena Feldstein (née Nossig) was born in Lviv as the daughter of Ignacy and Friederika (née Kreutz). She came from a wealthy Jewish family. Her father was a secretary of an Israelite community and brought up his children in a progressive spirit and in German culture. He was a member of Shomer Israel, an organisation preaching the slogans of national and cultural assimilation while maintaining religious distinctiveness, initially focused on Germanness, then Polishness. Ignacy was one of the committed activists of Agudas Achim [Hebrew: "Covenant of Brethren"] - an association of progressive Jews from Galicia founded in 1882 in Lviv, and the editor of its press organ "Ojczyzna".

Helena received a home education and graduated from a female seminary for community school teachers, but probably did not undertake employment in the profession. However, she was a successfully entrepreneur - after 1894, she founded the first textile and carpet factory in Lviv. At the end of the 1880s, she married Herman Władysław Feldstein (1864-1935), an engineer, graduate of the Lviv Polytechnic School, financier, and director of Bank Kupiecki (Merchants' Bank). The husband, a long-time city councillor, was, like Helena's father, active in Agudas Achim. Helena herself was also involved in the organisation's activities, heading the organisation's education section. For example, she taught courses in Polish history.

The Feldstein House located at 7 Herburtów Street (today Hlinky Street) was an important meeting place for the Jews of Lviv advocating acculturation and assimilation into Polish culture, and over time became an important point for the independence community. Helena attended meetings of the Union of Active Struggle (ZWCz), a secret independence organisation, held there. The ZWCz gave rise to the Riflemen's Association, a paramilitary social and educational organisation founded in Lviv in 1910, which constituted the basis for building the military structures of the Polish Legions. Activists of the socialist association "Promień", which played an important role in the process of ideological and political education of Polish youth before the First World War, also met at Herbutów Street.

The women's independence movement, both before and during the war, was not a mass one. In formal terms, Helena was not a member of any of the organisations mentioned, but, as it is written in the application for the independence medal, "she participated in all the work in the Lviv area aimed at furthering national education" (after M. Gałęzowski). "Promień" collaborated with, for example, Piłsudski, Konopnicka, and Orzeszkowa. At that time, Helena interacted also with Maria Dulębianka, an artist, women's rights advocate and feminist, independence activist, and fellow of Maria Konopnicka.

Dulębianka, chairwoman of the Women's Civic Labour Committee, initiated a convention of delegates of women's organisations from the Habsburg Empire working for women's suffrage in 1912 and created the first women's co-operative called "Spółka budowlana" ("Construction company") to erect the "Dom Kobiet im. Marii Konopnickiej" (Maria Konopnicka Women's House"). This idea was not carried out, but the "Spółka" was established; Helena Feldstein was on its board of directors.

In 1914, together with her husband, she became involved in the activities of the Supreme National Committee (NKN) - the political representation of the Galician parties gathered in the Commission of Confederated Independence Parties and the Central National Committee. The NKN exercised political authority over the Polish Legions. Helena took part in Legion fund-raisers carried out by the Lviv section of the Committee. Marian Kukiel, commander of the Lviv District of the Riflemen's Association, who was employed by the Military Department of the NKN, admitted in his post-war account that "the intendant's office owed much to the ladies...".

In the face of the Russian offensive in Galicia, she and her family travelled to Vienna, stopping in Kraków and Zakopane. In the capital of Austria, she co-organised the Legionnaires' Inn for convalescent and leave soldiers at 22 Luisegasse Street. The inn was run by the Ladies' Committee and, in addition to meals, clothing and accommodation, the Legionnaires could receive there also assistance with official matters and monetary relief. Polish stage artists who found themselves in Vienna also staged their plays for the benefit of the Inn.

After returning to Lviv in 1916, she organised a similar Inn, and soon became a co-founder of the Women's League, whose statutory aim was to work with youth circles preparing for the armed struggle against Russia and popularising the NKN programme. Helena Feldstein was one of the League's most active members, operating in various sections of the organisation, as well as on the Legion's Care Committee. In 1918, after the Treaty of Brest announcing the annexation of Chełmszczyzna and Podlasie to Ukraine, Helena Feldstein organised material aid to the soldiers of the Polish Auxiliary Corps (a formation created by Austria-Hungary from the Polish Legions), interned in the Hungarian town of Huszt (today Chust, Ukraine), protesting against the treaty. She also went to the camp in person.

Helena Feldstein's patriotic and social activities were overshadowed by the achievements and functions held by her husband. Their common merit undoubtedly consisted in that their children's life paths and ideological choices largely coincided with their parents' beliefs. The eldest - Łucja (b. 1891), Kipowa after her husband - became a well-known independence activist, a member of the Polish Military Organisation. Son - Tadeusz (b. 1894) - was an officer of the Polish Legions, a defender of Lviv and a participant in the war of 1920, during World War II a prisoner in Soviet camps, from where he was sent to the Second Corps of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Janina (b. 1896) became an acclaimed photographer, taking portraits of, for example, Piłsudski's family members. The youngest - Roman (b. 1901) - a juvenile defender of Lviv, was killed on the Ukrainian front during the Battle of Obroszyn. Helena, after her son's death, published a small volume of his poetry, entitled Pójdźcie za mną! (Eng. Come follow me!)

Both Feldstein sons converted. During the early 1920s, Helena and Herman also changed their religion to Roman Catholic and their surname to Felsztyn. During the last years of her life, already seriously ill, Helena was still active in the Women's League. She died while staying at the sanatorium in Karlove Vary (formerly Karlsbad). She and her husband are both buried next to their youngest son in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. She was posthumously awarded the Cross and Medal of Independence.

Konrad Zieliński

References:

• Gałęzowski M., Żydzi walczący o Polskę, Kraków 2021.
• Jasnowski P., Integracja galicyjskich Żydów w świetle lwowskiej "Ojczyzny" (1881–1892), "Kwartalnik Historyczny" 2016, Annual CXXIII, No. 3 pp. 447-490.
• Świetlik K, "Gdzie kilka kobiet weźmie się za sprawę…", czyli emancypacja na przykładzie Marii Dulębianki, [in:] Ruchy kobiece na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX w: stan badań i perspektywy, eds. Małgorzata Dajnowicz and Adam Miodowski, Białystok 2020;
• Zaczyński M., "Promień" i schematy, "Studia Historyczne" 1981, Annual XXIV, issue 3 (94), pp. 495-501.
• Z listów do redakcji. W sprawie mobilizacji oddziałów strzeleckich w Galicji Wschodniej, "Niepodległość" 1933, Vol. VIII, issue. 1, p. 458.

The biography was created as part of the "Polish Jewish Women for Independence" project, implemented with a grant from the Totalizator Sportowy Foundation.