Krystyna Ceynowa

Krystyna Ceynowa, also spelled as Cejnowa , was an ethnic Kashubian victim of murder by lynching and an alleged witch.

Accused of sorcery, she was subjected to the ordeal of water and drowned in Ceynowa (today Chałupy). She was the last person in Poland and among the last people in Europe to be subjected to lynching on the grounds of sorcery and witchcraft.

Life Ceynowa was the widow of a fisherman, living at Ceynowa on the Hel Peninsula, in the Province of Prussia. She was regarded as suspicious by the community for various reasons, including the fact that she never went to church, and it was said that black crows were attracted to her chimney. This gave her a bad reputation in the eyes of the congregation and people suspected that she was a witch. According to another account, she was stabbed to death.

Historical case Her case demonstrates that a belief in witchcraft continued among the public long after the legal authorities stopped accepting the charges of witchcraft, and that people occasionally took the law into their own hands when they suspected witchcraft.