Monument to Alf Liczmański

Dimensions: total height ca. 250 cm.

Object: The monument consists of a bust of Alf Liczmański, mounted on a tall granite pedestal. On the front face of the pedestal, the following inscription is engraved: ‘Alf Liczmański. Martyred on 20 March 1940’, with a Scout cross and the words ‘…Stone for the rampart …’ below. On the side of the pedestal, there is a second inscription that reads: ‘We pledge loyalty to you, Poland, in service to the nation and peace’. The artist’s signature, ‘W. Tołkin’, is inscribed on the eastern edge of the bust.

Location: The monument is located to the left of the main entrance to Primary School No. 65 named after Alf Liczmański, who became the school’s patron on 20 May 1965. Alfons Liczmański, a native of Gdańsk and a Scout activist, was arrested in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II and executed in Graniczna Wieś, a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp.

Information about the author: Wiktor Tołkin (b. 21 February 1922 in Tołkacze – d. 7 May 2013 in Gdańsk) was a Polish sculptor and architect. During World War II, he was a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). Arrested by the Gestapo, he was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 17 November 1942 to February 1944. He was released through family efforts, later fought in the Warsaw Uprising, and was subsequently held in a POW camp in Sandbostel near Bremen. Tołkin graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Gdańsk University of Technology (1946–1952) and the Faculty of Sculpture at the State School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (1947–1954). From 1952, he worked as an architect at design offices, but after 1963, he dedicated himself to artistic endeavours. Until the late 1990s, he operated a sculpture workshop in Gdańsk’s Główne Miasto, at 3 Mariacka Street. Tołkin is regarded as a leading figure in Polish monumental sculpture of the second half of the 20th century, alongside Xawery Dunikowski and Franciszek Duszeńko. He specialised in monuments related to World War II:  Marriage of Poland to the Sea (Kołobrzeg, 1963); To the People of the Sea (Gdynia, 1965); monument to Alf Liczmański (Gdańsk, 1965); Struggle and Martyrdom of Stutthof (Sztutowo, 1968); Fighters of the Resistance Movement (Złota Góra near Brodnica Górna, 1968); Struggle and Martyrdom with the Mausoleum Pantheon in the former Majdanek camp (Lublin, 1969); Polish Armed Forces Monument (Płock, 1978); monument to Janek Krasicki (Gdańsk, 1968). Most of these works are monumental compositions integrated into broader architectural designs. Tołkin was also active in the fields of medal design, interior design and interior arrangement.

Condition of the object –

Owner/guardian: Primary School No. 65

Author of the entry: Kora Kowalska