Murders of Zofia , Antoni, Bronisława, and Stefan Dolińska

 

At the beginning of the winter of 1923 in Poland 32-year-old Marianna Dolińska and other Roma families living in the Roma community near Antoniówka were suffering from hunger. It was a hard winter for them and members of the community began to steal food and animals from nearby farms to prevent starvation. 

In reaction, the State Police decided to stop the Roma who were stealing. One of the Roma that was arrested was Marianna's husband. This would leave her and their four children without help. Soon after his arrest, the camp was dispersed. For unknown reasons, the Dolińska family was rejected by the community. 

 Marianna and her children were left to wander around the forest and starve. Marianna's mentality was getting worse and believed that she and the children would starve to death and that was a slow and painful death. Instead of watching her children waste away, she decided to take their fate into her own hands. 

On the night of December 11, 1923, would hang her four children  6-month-old Zofia, 3-year-old Antoni, 5-year-old Bronisława, and 7-year-old Stefan. She would then go to the Rodam police and admit her crime. She would bring them to her children. A police photographer would take photographs of the scene. (These photographs are seen in most mentions of this case.) There was a 6-month investigation into the case because of Marianne's mental health. 

Marianna was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She was suicidal at the time and planned to kill herself, but did not follow through. She was observed exhibiting frequent and violent mental changes. She had fits of rage and destructive behavior or would fall into a stupor for days. It was determined that she was a "neutral perpetrator" and had done it without awareness of the consequences at the time. By 1926 she suffered from manic-depressive disorder and was believed to have bipolar disorder.

She would die in 1928 and was buried in the hospital cemetery

Be aware that photos of the children are posted in each link below. It is a sad and horrible sight to see four children hanging from a tree. The photographs of the children are termed "Wreath of Children" and are falsely used to represent massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1943. Please be aware before looking up the case yourself and or clicking any of the links I've used.

SOURCES:
Wikipedia

Rzeczpospolita May 19, 2007

Interia Wydarzenia December 11, 2014