# Halina Bortnowska

Halina Bortnowska (23 September 1931 – 19 June 2024) was a Polish social and ecumenical activist, and publicist. She was born in Toruń on 23 September 1931, and died on 19 June 2024, at the age of 92.
Halina Bortnowska-Dabrowska (born September 23, 1931 in Torun, died June 19, 2024[1]) - Polish philosopher, theologian, publicist. Animator of social projects, participant in the ecumenical movement expressing the need to convene the next Council in the Catholic Church. In 2007-2012, chairwoman of the Council of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. CV [ edit| edit code] She graduated from elementary school in Warsaw in 1944 and was deported to a German labor camp during the Warsaw Uprising. She studied at the Catholic Institute in Wroclaw, at the Catholic University of Lublin (master's degree in philosophy, 1961), later in Leuven (1964). During her studies she worked with children and adults as a catechist (in Wroclaw and Lublin). From 1961 to 1983, editor and secretary of the editorial board of the monthly Znak (among other things, journalist-reporter of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council; 1964). In the 1970s, she co-founded the hospice movement in Poland and the first Polish hospice in Nowa Huta. For five years she helped the terminally ill as a volunteer (editor of the book “The Sense of Sickness, the Sense of Death, the Sense of Life” - three editions in the Znak publishing house). In the 1980s, she was an advisor to the Workers' Committee of Steelworkers in Nowa Huta. She participated, as an advisor to the delegates of Malopolska, in the First Congress of the NSZZ “Solidarity”. She participated from December 13, 1981 in a several-day strike at the Metalworks Combine in Nowa Huta. She was briefly interned during martial law[2]. In 1986 she became a member of the Helsinki Committee in Poland. She was involved in activities for Polish-German reconciliation. She participated in the Action of Signs of Repentance projects of cleaning up ruins in Poland (Auschwitz) and Germany (Dresden). From 1967 to 1982 she actively participated in the work of the World Council of Churches[3]. She was an animator of projects to commemorate the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto, Jedwabne and Srebrenica[4]. After 1989 she co-founded the Civic Movement Democratic Action. She was associated with non-governmental organizations. On October 21, 1993 she was elected an alternate member of the State Tribunal[5]. Co-founder of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, from 2007 to 2012 chairwoman of the Foundation's Council. Before Poland's accession to the EU, she worked at the “Poland in Europe” Foundation. Co-founder of the Association Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia “Open Republic” (2000). As part of the journalism workshops she ran (for students, young journalists, schoolchildren or people incarcerated in prisons, among others), Halina Bortnowska was involved in promoting world journalism standards. Since 1992 she was an animator of the “Polis” Youth Journalism Workshop in Warsaw. Until 1999, editor-in-chief of “Polis - a magazine on the art of public life”. She initiated the project Internet Newspaper of the Science Festival. She participated in public discussions on such issues as social issues (including the hospice movement) and religious issues, ecumenism, vetting, human rights, commemoration of victims of genocide, and bioethics[6]. Her publications have appeared in such publications as: Gazeta Wyborcza, Znak monthly , Tygodnik Powszechny. She has kept a blog entitled Myślennik. Awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2001)[7] and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2011)[8]. Winner of the Prof. Zbigniew Holda Award in 2013[9]. In 2016 she was awarded the badge for Merit for the Protection of Human Rights[10][11]. In 1983, she married Kazimierz Dabrowski (a design engineer), who was a widower with four children[12]. She was buried in the old Sluzew cemetery in Warsaw[13]. Works [ edit| edit code] Already - not yet. A year-long retreat with the People of Advent (Znak, 2005, ISBN 83-240-0627-3) Everything will be different. With Halina Bortnowska is interviewed by Jolanta Steciuk (Znak, 2010, ISBN 978-83-240-1390-6) What's not. Halina Bortnowska's Thinker (Agora Publishing House, 2011, release September 23, 2011 Elaborations [ edit| edit code] The nameless speak of prayer (selection and arrangement; introduction by Marek Skwarnicki; Znak, 1973, 1982) The Sense of Sickness, the Sense of Death, the Sense of Life (compilation and editing; Znak, 1982; 1984, ISBN 83-7006-065-X; 1993, ISBN 83-7006-265-2) Poles-Germans '93. Conference of the Foundation “Poland in Europe” 23-24.10.1993, Conference Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Mądralin (compiled; with Marek Cichocki and Katarzyna Leszczyńska; “Exit”, through the efforts of the Foundation “Poland in Europe” 1993; series: Studies of the “Poland in Europe” Foundation, 1234-7841, no. 4 ) Christian Democracy in the 21st Century (substantive ed. and revised transl. by Halina Bortnowska-Dąbrowska and Kazimierz Dąbrowski; edited by Josef Thesang; FKA 1997, ISBN 83-86771-06-2) poland://germany-2011. Materials from a conference organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on April 13-15, 2000, in Warsaw (substantive editor; translated from german. Mariusz Matwiejczuk, Halina Bortnowska, transl. from English. Halina Bortnowska; Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Representative Office in Poland 2001, ISBN 83-86771-12-7) Translations [ edit| edit code] Marie-Dominique Chenu, God's People in the World (with Zofia Włodkowa ; foreword by Jerzy Turowicz; Znak, 1968) Mark Schoof, Breakthrough in Catholic theology: origins, paths, prospects (Sign, 1972) Michel Philibert, Paul Ricoeur, or freedom to the measure of hope (sketch on creativity and selection of texts; with Ewa Bienkowska and Stanislaw Cichowicz; PAX 1976)