She was called “Polish Marilyn Monroe”. She was only 9 years old when she ended up in an orphanage

Elżbieta Czyżewska was born on May 14, 1938 in Warsaw. In the mid-1960s, it was one of the most popular and sought-after cinemas in Poland. Among the men, she was admired, and among the women she was a role model. Few people know, however, that her road to success was preceded by many difficulties that fate had in store for her already in her childhood.

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The childhood of Elżbieta Czyżewska. Like a fairy tale about a poor but beautiful and talented girl

As a child, Elżbieta Czyżewska experienced many traumatic events. She spent her childhood in tragic conditions. She lived in a small room in the basement of a dilapidated building in Warsaw’s Tamka district, without running water, electricity or a sewage system. During the occupation, when she was a few years old, she lost her father. Jan Czyżewski was a Home Army lieutenant. The mother of Elżbieta and her sister Krystyna – Jadwiga Gimpel, a seamstress by profession, had a problem with alcohol and could not cope with the difficult financial situation and raising her daughters. Magdalena Komorek, Elżbieta’s niece, as quoted by the magazine, reported:

Grandma had a beautiful face, before the war she posed for a toothpaste commercial. She was also an alcoholic and a bad mother. She had terrifying parenting methods – when one daughter messed up, the other was spanked. Both were given to an orphanage.

When Elżbieta Czyżewska was 9 years old, she and her sister went to an orphanage in Konstancin for some time. After a few years, when Czyżewska was already a teenager, the mother decided to take her daughters from the orphanage back to the house in Tamka, even though her financial situation had not improved. A difficult childhood, as well as trauma related to rejection by her mother and her stay in an orphanage left its mark on Czyżewska’s later life.

Fate finally smiled at her. Czyżewska discovered her vocation – acting

Returning from the orphanage was a motivation for 15-year-old Elżbieta Czyżewska to get out of poverty. She knew she could only count on herself. When she joined the Song and Dance Ensemble “Skolimów”, she began performing on stage. Her was quickly noticed. Her beauty was also admired, but Czyżewska knew that a pretty face and long legs, even in combination with talent, would not be enough. She quickly began to make up for the shortcomings in education, thus reading various books. In the meantime, she started high school, and also got involved in drama clubs and recitation competitions, where she became the star of school academies. At the persuasion of a group of friends, she then quite spontaneously went to the drama school exams and got in on the first try. When she found herself at the State Higher School of Theater in Warsaw, she understood that she was in the right place. Kazimierz Kutz, as quoted by the magazine, recalled:

She wanted everyone to love her. I think maybe that’s why she went to acting school because she wanted to show the world her value, to exist. It was natural, without limits and brakes. She had madness. That’s why she was so good at acting. You have to be liberated in this profession.

Due to her residence in Warsaw, Czyżewska was not entitled to a place in a dormitory. Living in one room with her mother and sister was not the right conditions for learning and practicing roles. Beata Tyszkiewicz helped, who, when she saw the house of a friend from college, decided to intervene with the university authorities, asking for a place in the house. As he quotes, an excerpt from Sławomir Koper’s book “Greed for Life”, the portal said:

(…) I saw that she did not have not only her room, but also her corner. So I went to Vice-Rector Baczyński, asking him to grant her a place in ‘Dziekanka’ in such an exceptional situation. It worked, and she has been living with me in the room ever since.