Marta Rzewuska-Frankowska

Marta Zofia Rzewuska-Frankowska, pseudonym Izia, (born 12 March 1889 in Siedlce, died 24 May 1954) – anthropologist and teacher. She was also known as Marta Frankowska and taught secret classes in war-torn Poland in 1939. She graduated from Jan Miłkowski's Higher Pedagogical Courses for Women in Warsaw and took up work as a teacher at the Railway School in Żbikowo near Warsaw. At the same time, she began running workers' circles and working as a courier transporting socialist papers from Kraków to Warsaw. For her political activity, she was expelled from school in 1905 and In 1906 she joined the Union of Socialist Youth, and in 1910 the Polish Socialist Party. In 1913 she left for Zurich, where she began her studies in anthropology, but she had to interrupt them due to financial difficulties. She spent World War I working on the board of the Polish Self-Help Committee in Switzerland.

According to school history, Frankowska set up secret classes in 1939 so students could continue their education."Despite the [school] building being damaged during air raids, classes resumed on 2nd October. After all comprehensive schools were closed in November, Principal Marta Frankowska was one of the first to start organising secret classes on 1st December 1939. Initially, 15 groups of several students were set up, later there were 129. Despite the inconveniences, maintaining a high standard of education was considered a point of honour. During the entire period of classes, during the occupation, 250 final exams were issued, of which about 200 were verified thanks to the surviving exam protocols."