Today, on October 30, 2025, 10 years have passed since the death of Dr. Monika Armożewski – prof. of the University of Łódź, lawyer, criminal law specialists, deputy minister of justice.
She was an highly intelligent, well-prepared person, valued by students and coworkers. In the legal community, she has made a superb career, and a wider public opinion has become known when, as an expert, she participated in the work of the Sejm committee on the Rywin affair.
A fewer days ago I wrote to Prof. Tomasz Nałęcz, president of the Committee, with a request for a brief reflection on Mr Armożewski:
As chairman, I was looking for experts and individual pointed out to me a distinguished young investigator from the University of Łódź. I invited her to talk to the Sejm, after which I had no uncertainty that she was the individual I was looking for. She worked as a committee expert for respective months. She rapidly became 1 of her corporate marks, and it was not easy due to the fact that the another 2 experts were recognized professors and retired ultimate Court judges. Then I cheered for her superb career. 1 thing keeps bothering me till today. possibly if I hadn't made her a commission proposal, her life would have been different without the large ups and downs, and without that tragic finale.
Deputy Minister of Justice offered her the position of Minister of Justice at the time Caesary Grabarczyk. There seemed to be more opportunities for this woman. But her life had a second bottom—deeply hidden loneliness and a drinking problem. She masked him skillfully, maintaining for years the appearance of control. But erstwhile the façade broke, the fall came rapidly and violently. Stopping for driving after alcohol, immediate dismissal, yet abrupt death in the Warsaw infirmary in October 2015 – this is how the lawyer's biography, which was inactive in the ministerial office, ended.
Looking from a distance today, you can be tempted to diagnose: Monika Armoured She was not the victim of a single mistake, but of her own choices and weaknesses. In the trap of addiction, she gradually lost her ground under her feet, inevitably moving toward same - destruction. People like her – endowed with excessive sensitivity, frequently mutilated in early experiences – effort to relieve pain with alcohol or medication. This gives temporary relief, but in the long word it becomes a mechanics of destruction.
October 18, 2025, Roman Catholic Cemetery in Pabianice, the grave of Monika Armoured and her family. Photo: Mariusz Barył / paper Tribunalska. Click to enlarge.Not everyone has the ability to heal themselves. Not everyone meets individual in the way who can see a disability and shake hands. erstwhile there is no backup, the gap is close.
Ten years after that drama, it is no longer about remembering the scandal or highlighting mistakes. It's about trying to realize how thin the line is between success and failure, prestige and loneliness, life and death. The memory of Monika Armorewska should be full – it should include both its technological and professional achievements and its human weaknesses.
Pabianicki cemetery in October 2025. Photo: Mariusz Barył / Click to enlarge.I have not had the chance to meet Dr. Armożewska personally, but her destiny is readable to me through the prism of sensitivity, or possibly hypersensitivity, which frequently leads man to the edge. It is this component that allows us to realize past drama and makes its past close in the human dimension.
When I compose this text, I do so not only in my own name, but besides in those who owe her memory. I think about it now and think about it erstwhile I late visited the lawyer's grave in the Pabianite cemetery – this scroll of yellow leaves and those sad eyes looking at grave photography...
→ Mariusz Barłał
30.10.2025
• Photo: Mariusz Barył / paper Tribunalska
• more about Monika Zrożewska: > Here.
• more memories: > Here.
