Outstanding Polish Women

Janina Lewandowska

Europe's first woman to parachute from an altitude of five kilometres and the first woman pilot in the Polish Air Forces.

Urszula Dudziak

The queen of jazz and a revolutionary vocalist, she was the world's first singer to use transducers and live vocal looping.

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Her fabric sculptures were exhibited at the world's great art galleries. She was the only artist to give her surname to a new art genre - Abakans.

Helena Modrzejewska

Poland's first world-femaous actress achieved star status in Europe and America, especially for playing Shakespearean heroines.

Antonina Żabińska

Honoured as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, Antonina Żabińska and her husband Jan, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, saved nearly 300 Jews in World War II.