Children's Traces of the Warsaw Uprising
Children's participation in the Warsaw Uprising
It is estimated that when on 1 August 1944 the Poles set off to fight against the Germans to liberate Warsaw, among about 50,000 insurgents there were approx. 5500 people who were under the age of 18. During the uprising, almost 700 of them were killed...
Source of information: Chcieliśmy być wolni. Powstanie warszawskie 1944 (We wanted to be free. Warsaw uprising 1944), ed. A. Zawistowski, Warsaw 2022, p. 253.
Photo: Insurgent patrol in the north city centre. Attention is drawn to a boy [on the right] with a rifle, standing next to a damaged doll's pram [photo by Stefan Bałuk "Kubuś", collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum].
Messengers
Young boys in the Warsaw Uprising were most often messengers, scouts, guides in the sewers. They assisted in a wide variety of activities: they carried reports and orders, built barricades, put out fires, rescued people buried alive under rubble.
Photo: A group of scouts helping to extinguish a fire in a tenement house. Wojciech Ciążyński “Malec” is second from the left, messenger Zbigniew Ślęzakowski “Kędziorek” is in a fireman's helmet (photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski “Brok”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
"We were walking through the sewers, we came to a storm drain where there was some kind of strange chemical smell; when you lit a torch you could see such thick fumes. We kept walking, but slowly started to lose consciousness, fell over and fell into the water. But as we dived into the water, we came round and bobbed up. It finally reached my consciousness that it was over, that we’d never get out of here. And then somehow I woke up and suddenly I heard a voice: ‘go to the right, to the right there will be a sewer’. I looked around and there was a branch up ahead. We turned there and came under the manhole cover, there was a draught of air and there was no gas hazard. We were able to save ourselves. If we had missed that sewer, we wouldn't have come out of there at all".
(Sławomir Zawadzki "Lech")
Source of the quote: recording for the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.
The youngest ones
"A part of the bank’s building was on fire, set on fire by the enemy. Captain "Gozdawa" decided to blow up a part of the redoubt together with the Germans. At this moment, a minor figure of a child known to all in the 2nd assault unit, their messenger, Witold Modelski “Warszawiak” joined the action. This child, at the age of less than 12 years old, was not the type of young city slicker. (...) At that tragic moment he went to the bank with capt. "Gozdawa" and it was the commander of the sub-unit who sent the messenger with the task of reaching the quarters of lt. "Klucznik" on Świętojerska street to get the sappers to come with the appropriate amount of explosives. At that moment the fate of the redoubt of the Polish bank depended on him, on his reaching the sapper company. (...) Despite the enemy covering all the streets of the old town with dense fire from grenade launchers, mine throwers, and series of on-board machine guns of the German airmen, he reached the sappers in time. The messenger, cpl. "Warszawiak", was awarded the Cross of Valour for completing this dangerous task".
Source of the quote: Zbigniew Wróblewski, Pod komendą „Gozdawy" 1 VIII – 4 X 1944 (Under Gozdawa’s command 1 Sep – 4 Oct 1944), Warsaw 1989, p. 153.
Photo: One of the youngest insurgents – cpl. Witold Modelski "Warszawiak" (in the centre) (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Nurses
Girls in the Warsaw Uprising mostly helped in hospitals and dressing points. They were nurses, messengers, were active in the military women's service and soldier aid service, worked in field kitchens and organised supplies.
Photo: Hospital of the “Koszta" company, the picture includes nurse Janina Stęczniewska "Inka" with her daughter Hania among the wounded insurgents (photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski “Brok”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
"My greatest experience of the uprising, the most shocking one, was in the insurgent hospital. I was sent with a parcel to a hospital near Żelazna street. And I entered hell... The injured ones, with no anaesthetics, not screaming but howling in pain, bloodied doctors operating. And in this hell there were girl scouts constantly mopping up blood from the floor.
I handed over the parcel and jumped out of this place as if I had come out of hell.
And that was my greatest admiration, not that a man carried a parcel under fire. But to endure as these girls did while cleaning in this hospital. My incredible admiration for the girl scouts continues to this day".
(Ryszard Cholewa "Rysiek")
Source of the quote: recording for the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.
The youngest ones
"Róża [Rose] was always very stubborn; she necessarily wanted to help at the hospital. And she did. For example, she gave water to the wounded, chased away flies, which were a real scourge... And she brought smiles to people’s faces".
(Zofia Goździewska, Róża's Sister)
Source of the quote: http://www.szpitale1944.pl/l/836,r0za-maria-g0zdziewska
Photo: Probably the youngest nurse of the uprising - Róża Goździewska (photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski “Brok”,
Collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Scout field mail
In the first days of August 1944 the youngest scouts of the Grey Ranks ("Zawiszacy", aged 12-14) started to organise the scout field mail. The first scout field mail units were established in the area of Wilcza street in the south city centre. The scout field mail commandant was scoutmaster Władysław Olędzki "Papa", and the initiator of its creation was scoutmaster Kazimierz Grenda "Granica". Soon the scout field mail was merged with the Home Army’s field mail. It is estimated that during the Warsaw Uprising, the "Zawiszacy" brought around 120 thousand letters and distributed many titles of the insurgent press. Many of them paid for this activity with their lives.
Wielka ilustrowana encyklopedia powstania warszawskiego. Tom 2: Polityka, kultura, społeczeństwo (Great Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the Warsaw Uprising. Volume 2: Politics, Culture, Society), ed. P. Rozwadowski, Warsaw 2006.
Photo: Insurgent press distributor Zbigniew Wojtyniak "Żbik" (photo by Tadeusz Bukowski "Bończa", Warsaw Rising Museum collection).
The theatre “Kukiełki pod Barykadą” (Puppets under the Barricade)
The “Kukiełki pod Barykadą” theatre was established at the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising in the Powiśle district. The group was headed by Michał Dadlez “Andrzej Bogoria”, who wrote the lyrics together with Krystyna Gogolewska.
The puppets – rag dolls – were made by Zofia Rendzner. The insurgent premiere of the play took place on 16 August in a house at 38 Tamka street in front of the command of the "Krybar" group. In the following days, the performance was played out in courtyards, streets, gates, hospitals, halls and other places in the Powiśle district and the north city centre.
Source of information: Wielka ilustrowana encyklopedia powstania warszawskiego. Tom 2: Polityka, kultura, społeczeństwo (Great Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the Warsaw Uprising. Volume 2: Politics, Culture, Society), ed. P. Rozwadowski, Warsaw 2006, pp. 394-395.
Photo: Children watching the “Kukiełki pod Barykadą” performance (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Slaughter of the Wola district
From 5 August, the organised mass murders of civilians began on an unprecedented scale in Warsaw's Wola district. The Germans and their collaborators from the east (Russians, Ukrainians, Azerbaijanis) drove the Poles out of their flats, drove them to places of their choosing and shot them, forming tall heaps of corpses. These mounds were then poured with petrol and set on fire. This happened at many points in the Wola district. The Germans murdered the majority of the victims of the massacre they inflicted on the inhabitants of the Wola district during only two days, on 5 and 6 August (the so-called "Black Saturday" and "Black Sunday"). About 50,000 Polish civilians died as a result of the pacification.
Source of information: Szymon Nowak, na łamach. Wojna-Powstanie-Wyklęci (in the pages. War-Uprising-Cursed), Mysłowice 2020, pp. 118-119.
Photo: Civilians (women and children only) from the Wola district led along Wolska street. Probably in the first days of August during the slaughter of the Wola district. (Bundesarchiv/public domain).
Slaughter of the Wola district – girl scouts from the st. Lazarus hospital.
"And from that moment the gehenna began. There were 15 of us together with an older nurse (I can't remember her name). The girls were aged 15-18. I have to say that the girls had a very brave attitude, the kind of attitude that a girl scout should adopt. First the Germans brutally began to execute the doctors before our eyes, usually shooting them in the back of the head. And so one by one they came to us. They ordered us to move forward a few steps and shot at us in groups. I stepped forward together with everyone, singing the Polish anthem. At the sound of gunshots I fell down, and next to me the girls with their heads shattered. The proverb speaks of luck in misfortune; I was lucky. Lying in a position with my legs tucked up, I experienced everything, I heard the whole tragedy to the end”.
(Wanda Łokietek-Borzęcka "Rzeka”)
Source of the quote: Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim, Tom 1. Pamiętniki. Relacje. Zeznania. Część pierwsza (Civilian Population in the Warsaw Uprising, Volume 1. Memoirs. Relationships. Testimonies. Part one), Warsaw 1974, pp. 251-252.
Photo: Zofia Riedel (1928-1944), one of the girl scouts murdered in the st. Lazarus hospital (photo made available by ms. Agnieszka Nagalska née Riedel, family archive).
Explosion of the “booby-trap tank" part 1
"What we saw left us stunned! On a concrete platform by the defence wall stood a tank with a white-red flag! (...) We were pushing our way through the dense circle of people with difficulty in order to see it at close range, touch it, stroke its cold armour... – our tank! (...) We were mainly interested in the problem of how to get on it! Antek, who was older and bigger than me, managed to climb up – unfortunately I did not! The engine whirred, belched out clouds of fumes – the tank was to move in a short while and I could not in any possible way catch hold of it! Finally, my leg found some support and I grabbed the edge of the armour with my hand and mr. Józef, who lived in the neighbouring basement, grabbed my other hand, so I was riding! I was riding on the tank! However, my joy did not last long. At the turn from Podwale street into Kilinskiego street, my leg slipped, I hanged by my hands and – despite my desperate struggle to remain on the tank – I fell off! (...) When I found myself on Podwale street, just around the corner of the building, a monstrous force threw me to the ground! (...) Nothing was visible... Dust and smoke”.
(Janusz Wałkuski, then a 10-year-old boy)
Source of the quote: Janusz Wałkuski, Moja wojna 1939-1945 (My War 1939-1945), Szczecinek 2005, pp. 103-104.
Photo: The burnt and damaged hull of a German Borgward B IV which exploded on 13 August 1944. [photo by Jerzy Tomaszewski, public domain).
Explosion of the “booby-trap tank" part 2
"Suddenly my heart was filled with a heavy feeling. By the wall of the house, black berets were lying on the pavement. One, two, five – I counted. These were the berets of the boys from the messenger platoon. Their owners had disappeared. Literally. Without trace. I was picking those wretched remains of our kids. I felt nothing. The onslaught of events was beyond a normal person's ability to feel. I immediately began the search. In fact, the command was already doing this. The effects were terrible. Tadek "Kruk" and twelve of his scouts perished, or rather disappeared. Only one of them, little “Grajek”, died of his wounds in hospital”.
(Witold Sawicki “Andrzej”)
Source of the quote: Robert Bielecki, "Gustaw” / "Harnaś". Dwa powstańcze bataliony (Gustaw” / "Harnaś". Two Insurgent Battalions), Warsaw 1989, p. 231.
Photo: Messengers playing checkers in the courtyard at the back of the outhouse of the building at 3 Kredytowa street in the north city centre (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Life in the cellars
"(…) as early as 1 August, the entire tenement moved to the basement (...). And a real tragedy happened to me immediately. I didn't have any milk. Not a drop. Although the midwife gave me some tablets, they did not help. On the first day I thought that maybe all was not yet lost, but then we went down to the basement and these terrible things started happening. Bombing, crying, lamenting. I was so terribly stressed.... – god, what should I feed my newborn baby?, I asked. We ate what we had in stock ourselves. And so mainly porridge, which I poured through a sieve and gave to the baby in his mouth with a spoon. Milk was nowhere to be found (...). It was so dark in the basement that I could barely see anything when I was changing my son. I used torn sheets, washcloths, some kind of pillowcases for this. We were tearing everything that was suitable for nappies. And also what was not suitable. My sister brought these things from the flat in between bombings. Dirty “nappies” were simply thrown away. After all, there was no possibility of doing laundry under these conditions".
(Halina Wiśniewska)
Source of the quote: Anna Herbich, Dziewczyny z powstania (Girls from the Uprising), Kraków 2014, pp. 42-43.
Photo: Civilians in a cellar during a meal (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Children must survive
"This was an action that was carried out by the military social service (...). We mostly walked in a group of three because we had to carry the bags. We just walked around the houses. I think the pass was also to give credibility to our action. We asked for powdered milk, nutritional supplements, porridge for babies who were born during or just before the uprising. We collected the food, it was carried to a point, at the moment I don't remember where, and it was then distributed to the little children. In the uprising, it was a big problem. After all, there were no options, Warsaw was a completely closed city. What was touching was the fact that I don't remember any rejection, any annoyance. If there was a refusal and someone said they had nothing, we knew that it was not a lie".
(Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda)
Source of the quote: https://www.1944.pl/archiwum-hist0rii-m0wi0nej/krystyna-zachwat0wicz-wajda,738.html
Photo: The time of the Warsaw Uprising – Wanda Wysocka is feeding her daughter (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
The youngest one to receive the Virtuti Militari cross – Jerzy Antoni Bartnik "Magik"
Jerzy Antoni Bartnik "Magik" (1930-2011) is the youngest one to receive the Virtuti Militari cross from the time of the Uprising, a pre-war scout, then a Union of Armed Struggle and Home Army conspirator and partisan from the group led by Jan Piwnik "Ponury". During the Warsaw Uprising, he fought in the ranks of the Home Army battalion "Parasol", Home Army battalion "Gustaw" and Home Army group "Bartkiewicz". Severely wounded in the head (he lost an eye) during fighting in the Polish security printing works building at the end of August. For his fighting in the Uprising he was decorated with the Cross of Valour (6 September 1944) and the Virtuti Militari cross by the commander of the Home Army, general Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski during an inspection on 23 September 1944. Maria Teresa Bartnik "Diana” was Jerzy Bartnik's sister.
Source of information: Jerzy Antoni Bartnik “Magik” mpin/ https://wwwj944.pl/powstancze-biooramy/jerzy-oartnik,2222.html
Photo: Insurgents from the "Bartkiewicz" group: Jerzy Bartnik “Magik” and Walenty Zieliński “Bosman” on the stand (photo from the family collection of Jerzy Bartnik “Magik”).
Capitulation, captivity
On 2 October 1944 warfare ceased in Warsaw. During the Warsaw Uprising, about 16,000 insurgents and approximately 150,000 civilian residents of the city were killed. Almost 12,000 insurgents were taken prisoner by the Germans. Among this number, there were more than 3,000 women and more than 1,000 underage boys.
Source of information: Chcieliśmy być wolni. Powstanie warszawskie 1944 (We Wanted to be Free. Warsaw Uprising 1944), ed. A. Zawistowski, Warsaw 2022, p. 321.
Photograph from a prisoner-of-war camp in Fallingbostel XI B. Wiktoria Darmosz "Adusia" with her daughter Władysława Darmosz "Dziunia" (Warsaw Rising Museum collection).
Losses...
During the Second World War about 6 million Polish citizens died, whereas approx. 2 million of the victims were children.
Approx. 200 thousand Polish children were Germanised.
Photo: a girl over the grave in the garden at 9 Mazowiecka street (photo by Sylwester Braun "Kris". Collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
Łódź traces of the Uprising: Barbara Nazdrowicz "Wiewiórka"
Barbara Nazdrowicz was born in 1929 in Łódź. She attended the Helena Miklaszewska School in Łódź, but in 1944 her family, persecuted by the Germans, moved to Warsaw, where Barbara continued her education at clandestine classes. She was active in the Grey Ranks and took part in "Small Sabotage" actions. She went to the Uprising as a volunteer and was a messenger in the "Odwet" company of the "Golski" battalion. She died on 19 September 1944 after being fatally injured by shrapnel.
Source of information: Barbara Nazdrowicz, https://www.1944.pl/powstancze-biogramy/barbara-nazdrowicz,53321.html
“It was a day like any other day,
The rumble of bombs in the streets,
Bullets, shrapnels smashing through tenements.
Amidst a sea of flames,
With fiery hair,
You are running to your death,
Girl scout.
Are you thinking about that happy holiday?
About lilacs, about jasmines, about violets, acacias?
What did you feel when you fell like a pigeon on the pavement?
And your heart died away slowly, tap, tap.
Girlfriend, Squirrel, Basia. We raise your monument with a song".
Source of the quote: a song about Basia Nazdrowicz, 59th Łódź scout troop.
Photo: Barbara Nazdrowicz "Wiewiórka" (collections of the General Elżbieta Zawacka Foundation in Toruń].
Łódź traces of the Uprising – children from the camp on Przemysłowa street in the Uprising
Photo: an insurgent inspecting documents of civilians, "Kryska" group, Czerniaków (photo by Joachim Joachimczyk “Joachim”, collections of the Warsaw Rising Museum).
"In 1944 I managed to escape and made my way to Warsaw. A dozen or so days later, the Warsaw Uprising broke out in Warsaw, in which I took an active part as a Home Army messenger under the command of cpt. “Kryska". I was wounded during the fighting and to this day I have a shrapnel in me, near my right lung".
Source of the quote: IPN GK 165/379 t. 2, k. 457; IPN GK 165/379, t. 2, k. 462.
This is how Adam Dzięgielewski, a former prisoner of the German camp on Przemysłowa street, remembered his part in the Uprising. He was imprisoned for carrying illegal leaflets and underground press in 1942. As sick with typhoid and meningitis, he was transferred to hospital, from where he managed to get out with the help of others.
Photo: German nazi camp for Polish children on Przemysłowa street in Łódź – juvenile prisoners at roll call (the Institute of National Remembrance).
Łódź traces of the Uprising – Maria Turowska née Pawłowska "Myszka"
Maria Turowska née Pawłowska was born in 1929 in Brześć Kujawski. After the outbreak of war, the Pawłowski family were deported by the Germans to the General Government.
Maria began to live in Warsaw, attended clandestine classes and was active in the Grey Ranks as a messenger. During the Warsaw Uprising; she worked for the scouts' field mail and was injured in her legs. After the fighting stopped, she left the city with the civilians. After the war, she settled in Łódź, graduated in chemistry from the University of Łódź, and in 1990 was appointed professor there.
Source of information: a note from the recording for the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.
"When I was distributing those letters in that square, on Krucza street, as I was walking with those letters, there was a raid of these very small planes diving. And one of the bombs fell behind me. And it literally shredded my right leg; my left leg was only injured a little bit. But I could walk, so I went to the nearest dressing point. And there... Because there was this bombardment by those planes, there was a man without an eye, someone without an arm, without a leg... When I saw this... I made a dressing myself and put it on that injured leg. And I thought to myself: what am I doing here? I'm not going to join the queue and take up the doctor’s time for such a trifle, I'll go to my quarters”.
Source of the quote: recording for the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.
Photo: Maria Pawłowska "Myszka", july 1944 (collection of Maria Turowska née Pawłowska).
Photo: Maria Turowska née Pawłowska, February 2024 (collections of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism).