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article was possible and appears thanks to the generosity of
the de Brzezie Lanckoronski Foundation
The
significant role played by Polish women in the Home Army (Armia
Krajowa – AK) was the effect of both tradition
(participation in the national uprisings of the 19th
century and the struggles for independence during the First
World War) and of upbringing in the Second Republic,
particularly at home and in the scouting movement. Many years of
Polish women’s endeavours to have their contribution to
national defence legally defined came to fruition in the form of
a statute of the Polish Sejm (April 1938, on comprehensive
military duty) that granted them the right to serve in auxiliary
detachments, including anti-aircraft, sentry and communications
units as well as other services ‘necessary for defence
purposes.’ Consequently, women’s organisational structures
that had been functioning since the start of the 1920s took on
their ultimate form and in 1939 became known as the Women’s
Auxiliary Army Service (Organizacja Przysposobienia
Wojskowego Kobiet – OPWK), headed by Maria Wittekówna.
It was
also Maria Wittekówna who in October 1939 took charge of the
Women’s Auxiliary Service – of the 1st Bureau of
the Polish Victory Service (
Służba
Zwycięstwu Polski
– SWP) GHQ. However, it should be stressed that the actual
active engagement of women in the national liberation movement
(in military operations both at home and abroad) was far greater
than what was stated in official figures. Indeed, at the start
of 1940 the Commander of the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek
Walki Zbrojnej – ZWZ),
Col. Stefan Rowecki, declared that the women in Poland were
carrying out the same types of military service as the men, and
thus decreed that the term Women’s Military Service be used.
In October 1941 the Armed Forces commander in Poland issued an
order stating that ‘women remaining in active military service
at a time of underground warfare are soldiers facing the enemy.’
In February 1942 the Women’s Service in Poland was officially
raised to the rank of Women’s Military Service, and in April
that year instructions were issued to ‘make comprehensive use
of the women’s military service,’ in preparations for a
planned reconstruction of the Polish Armed Forces. In order for
this military service to obtain full legal status the Commander
of the AK sent Elżbieta Zawadzka as his emissary to the
Polish Government-in-exile. The result of her mission (which
coincided with legislative work being carried out by the Polish
government and the Polish Supreme GHQ Command) was that the
Polish President issued a decree, dated 27th October
1943, stating that ‘female soldiers have the same rights and
obligations as male soldiers.’ This sanctioned the actual
state of affairs, particularly in the AK, and provided legal
grounds for resolving various issues, such as the matter of
bestowing ranks. However, it was not until 23rd
September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, that woman soldiers
of the AK started being granted military ranks, and for that
reason the order did not reach various Home Army districts
before it was disbanded.
The
abovementioned efforts to obtain official recognition for the
women’s service as being ‘military’ rather than ‘auxiliary’
were significant insofar as women accounted for approximately
ten percent of Home Army personnel. Therefore one would have
been hard put to find an AK unit that did not include any women.
The day-to-day functioning of underground resistance in the
previous ZWZ phase would have been impossible without women and
they were already present at its initial, SZP, stage. From the
very start they organised liaison operations, serving as
messengers and couriers. With time this service was termed
Underground Communications and it included so-called VK
Departments (Courier Liaison Departments) at each HQ. From 1939
to the end of the Warsaw Uprising the commander of the V-K GHQ
of the SZP, ZWZ and finally AK was Janina Karasłówna ‘Brońka’.
Below her there was also the Department of Foreign
Communications, headed throughout by Emilia Malessa ‘Marcycia’.
Contact with the headquarters of various areas and districts of
occupied Poland was provided by two special units also run by
women. In charge of the Head Office at the AK GHQ was Janina
Bredel ‘Marianka’. The internal liaison network of the GHQ
was operated via the offices of the various detachments and
departments where women usually worked. ‘Every day, 14 to 17
meetings at various places in the city between 10.00 and 17.00
hrs, and each time being encumbered with secret letters to or
from prisoners, clandestine publications, a multitude of things
to remember or sort out and having to maintain constant
alertness,’ is how one woman courier recalled it years later.
The situation was very similar within the AK structures of
outlying areas. However, it would be a big mistake to assume
that the contribution of women was reduced to the liaison
services they dominated.
They
also played a considerable role in the distribution of illegal
newspapers and other AK publications. An efficient team of
female couriers was run by Wanda Kraszewska-Ancerewicznowa ‘Lena’,
who from 1941 was put in charge of the central office of
distribution at the AK GHQ. Moreover there was a special women’s
diversion and sabotage detachment called DYSK (Dywersja
i Sabotaż Kobiet)
commanded by Wanda Gertz ‘Kazik’. There were also women’s
mine laying patrols which took part in ‘Operation Wreath’ to
blow up railway lines around Warsaw. In territories beyond
Warsaw, especially in partisan detachments, women played a vital
role as field nurses, in organising first aid posts (in
villages) and, during Operation ‘Tempest’, field hospitals.
The Women’s Military Service also provided logistic support to
partisan detachments in the field during the difficult
conditions of autumn and winter (by sewing warm clothes,
knitting scarves and socks). Women distinguished themselves
during the Warsaw Uprising in their work as nurses and
messengers. Over 60 percent of a special platoon running a
courier network in the sewers of the Polish capital were women.
When the Warsaw Uprising fell the Germans granted over two
thousand Polish women soldiers prisoner-of-war status, a fact
unprecedented in European history. Women officers were sent to Oflag
Molsdorf, whereas women of lower ranks were sent, among other
places, to Stalag Oberlangen.
It
has been estimated that almost 5,000 AK women soldiers perished
during the war, i.e. almost ten percent of those in active
service.
Many
women soldiers of the AK received decorations. In the Lwów
district (Area III) 20 percent of those who received the Cross
for Valour were women, likewise 40 percent of those who received
the Silver Cross of Merit with swords and 50 percent of those
who received the Bronze Cross of Merit with swords. In a few
exceptional cases women were decorated with the Order Virtuti
Militari (class V).
After
the disbanding of the AK some women continued the struggle for
independence in the ranks of the Armed Forces Delegature and
later the Freedom and Independence Union. They were subjected to
repressions from the security services as much as the men.
During the Polish People’s Republic era those women who did
not actively participate in freedom movement organisations (as
well as those who returned to their families after being
released from prison) continued and nurtured the Polish
patriotic tradition. Women insurgents of the Warsaw Uprising who
did not return home after their liberation from POW camps
remained loyal to the cause and actively participated in
combatant circles, including the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen
Association and the Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945)
Study Trust.