Mon Graffito

Louise Jenkins Meriwether was not just a witness to history; she helped shape it. A novelist, journalist, and social activist, her work reflects the struggles and triumphs of her community. From her early life during the Great Depression to becoming the first Black story analyst in Hollywood, she used her voice to fight for justice and equality.

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”

Alojzy Pawłowski was born in 1918. He was a Polish national, a Catholic, and a nurse by profession. At 22 years of age, he was sentenced to two years in prison for fornication with men, similar to his partner Jan Ratajczak. In May 1940, he met defendant 2 [Ratjczak] at the hospital, who had been admitted there at the end of April with a foot injury. Without first alluding to his intentions in conversation, he lay down in bed with defendant 2 one night around the middle of May. He gripped defendant 2’s genitals, held his own against them. For this he would experience a living hell for the next 5 years. Alojzy was convicted based on Paragraph 174/3 and was considered the seducer: “It was to be taken into account during sentencing that the defendant [Pawłowski] acted as the seducer, and has a proclivity towards perverted fornication. He was therefore not allowed any mitigating circumstances. […] However, it was to be taken into account for the defendant [Ratajczak] that he was seduced into performing the act by the defendant [Pawłowski].” In August 1943, the Gestapo transported him to Auschwitz concentration camp where he was tattooed, prisoner number 136627. Having survived Auschwitz, one year later, he was taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp – then to Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he was freed. Alojzy Pawłowski died on October 14, 1986.