Danuta Siedzikówna

Danuta Siedzikówna

Danuta Helena Siedzikówna (also Inka ( alias ), Danuta Obuchowicz (false name); born September 3, 1928 in Guszczewina near Narewka , Powiat Bielsk Podlaski ; † August 28, 1946 in Gdańsk ) was a Polish nurse in the 4th re-established in the Powiat Białystok . Squadron of the 5th Wileńska Brigade of the Polish Home Army . In 1946 she served with the 1st Squadron of the Brigade in Pomerania . In 2006 she was posthumously awarded the Polonia Restituta order .

Life

Memorial plaque for Danuta Siedzikówna in St. Mary's Church , Gdansk

Memorial stone for Danuta Siedzikówna in Sopot

Memorial to Danuta Siedzikówna in Narewka

Symbolic grave for Danuta Siedzikówna in Gdansk

Memorial plaque for soldiers of the Home Army in St. Mary's Church in Gdansk

Memorial to Danuta Siedzikówna in Krakow

Siedzikówna was born on September 3, 1928 in the village of Guszczewina near Narewka in the Powiat Bielsk Podlaski. She was the daughter of Wacław Siedzik, forester and soldier in the Anders Army , and Eugenia, a born Tymińska, who was murdered by the Gestapo in September 1943 near Białystok . Danuta Siedzikówna grew up until 1939 with her sisters Wiesława (1927-2004) and Irena (? –1978) in the forester's house in Guszczewina, from 1939 to 1943 in Różanystok near Dąbrowa Białostocka . After their mother's death, Danuta and Wiesława also went to the Polish Home Army (AK) in autumn 1943 or spring 1944 and received medical training.

After Białystok was conquered by the Red Army and the occupation by the Wehrmacht was over, Siedzikówna took up a job as an employee of the Hajnówka Forestry Administration .

In the anti-communist underground

Together with other employees of the forest administration, she was arrested by the NKVD and the Polish secret police (UB) in June 1945 for collaborating with forces of the anti-communist underground movement Zrzeszenie Wolność i Niezawisłość (WiN) (see exiled soldiers ). During a prisoner transport she was liberated by a partisan group of the former Polish Home Army from Vilnius , which was active in the area and was under the command of Stanisław Wołonciej ("Konus"), an employee of Zygmunt Szendzielarz ("Łupaszko"). "Konus" brought the freed prisoners to the "Łupaszko" camp, where some, including Siedzikówna, joined this group. In the following time Siedzikówna worked first in the group of "Konus", later in the group of Lieutenant Jan Mazur ("Piast") and then with Lieutenant Marian Płuciński ("Mścisław") as a medical assistant. For a short time, Lieutenant Leon Beynar ("Nowina") was her superior, the representative of "Łupaszko" and later known as " Paweł Jasienica " Polish historian and writer. During this time Siedzikówna took her code name "Inka". The "Łupaszko" brigade was disbanded in September 1945 and Siedzikówna took up work under the false name "Danuta Obuchowicz" in the forest management of Miłomłyn in the powiat Ostródzki . Due to the reprisals by the communists, the brigade was mobilized again in January 1946. In the spring of 1946 Siedzikówna came to the group of Lieutenant Zdzisław Badocha ("Żelazny"), who led one of Łupaszko's units. After his death, Vice Lieutenant Olgierd Christa ("Leszek") took over the combat group, he sent Siedzikówna to Gdańsk to pick up supplies of bandages. There she was arrested again on July 20, 1946 by the Polish secret police. In prison, she refused, even under torture, to reveal her contacts to the anti-communist underground organizations and the agreed meeting places.

Trial and death sentence

Despite the fact that she was only a nurse, she was charged with active participation in an attack by the Łupaszko unit on officials of the Polish secret police UB and the Polish police Milicja Obywatelska near the village of Podjazy in the Powiat Kartuski . She was charged with shooting a police officer and giving instructions to other partisans. The testimony of the police officers and secret police involved in the battle contradicted each other, some confirmed that they fired and gave instructions, others contradicted this. Mieczysław Mazur, one of the police officers, testified on oath that she had given him medical treatment when he was wounded by other partisans in the battle. There were also contradicting statements in the trial about the allegation against her that she shot wounded police officers. Due to the contradicting testimonies and the absurdity of the prosecution, even the court came to the conclusion that she had not actively participated in the attack. Regardless of her age, she was only 17 years old at the time of the trial , she was sentenced to death . Boleslaw Bierut , President of the Polish People's Republic , refused a clemency grant that her public defender filed for them, but they refused to sign himself. Danuta Siedzikówna was on August 28, 1946 six days before her 18th birthday, along with Feliks Selmanowicz ( "Zagończyk") in the prison of Gdańsk shot .

The last minutes of her life are known from a report by the priest Marian Prusak, who gave her (“Inka”) and “Zagończyk” their last support. According to him, both were composed. After hearing her confession , Siedzikówna gave him the address of her family and asked him to inform her of her death. The two were tied to wooden stakes on the ground floor of the prison and refused to be blindfolded. When the public prosecutor gave the order to fire the firing squad, they both shouted long live Poland! . Danuta Siedzikówna was not immediately dead afterwards, so that Franciszek Sawicki, the attending prosecutor himself, gave her the coup de grace , which all members of the firing squad had refused to do.

aftermath

Marian Prusak informed Danuta Siedzikówna's family of her death, but they had already received the news by other means. Little did Prusak know that he was being followed by the Polish secret police. In 1949 he was therefore charged with espionage and sentenced to three years and six months in prison. After the end of communist rule in Poland, Wacław Krzyżanowski, the main prosecutor in the trial of Danuta Siedzikówna, who demanded the death penalty, was charged with two judicial murders in 1993 and again in 2001 . In both cases he was found innocent, his argument being that he was only marginally involved in the respective cases.

Honors

On November 11, 2006, the Polish President Lech Kaczyński awarded Danuta Siedzikówna the order of Polonia Restituta posthumously .

Patronage

• Park in. sanitariuszki Inki in Sopot ,
• Elementary school in Podjazy near Sulęczyno , Powiat Kartuski , Pomeranian Voivodeship
• Secondary school in Ostrołęka in the Masovian Voivodeship
• the Danuta Siedzikówna "Inka" general education high school No. I in Wroclaw
• 3 Sokólska Drużyna Wędrownicza ZHP
• 44 Mazowiecka Drużyna Harcerek "Kasjopea" ZHR in Warsaw
• 1 Ostrołęcka Drużyna Harcerek "Ignis" ZHR
• 37 Gdyńska Drużyna Harcerek "Biedronki" ZHR
• 95 Tomaszowska Drużyna Harcerek "SZAROTKA" ZHP, Hufiec ZHP in Piotrków Trybunalski

Memorials

• Memorial plaque in the Marienbasilika , Gdansk
• Monument in the park imienia Sanitariuszki Inki , Sopot
• Monument next to the parish church in Narewka near Hajnówka
• Symbolic grave in the Garrison Cemetery, Gdansk
• Monument in park dr. H. Jordana in Krakow 15 09 2012

Movies

The life story of the resistance fighter has already been filmed several times. In 2006 the film “Inka 1946 - Ja jedna umrę” by Natalia Korynckia-Gruz with Karolina Kominek-Skuratowicz in the title role was released.

Web links

Commons : Danuta Siedzikówna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information about Polonia Restituta on the website of the Polish President (Polish)
• Brochure about Inka, at elknet.pl (PDF; 15.11 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sprawa karna przeciwko Danucie Siedzikównie ps. Inca. In: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. Retrieved March 26, 2019 (Polish). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Piotr Szubarczyk: Danuta Siedzikówna - bohaterka Spektlu "Inka 1946" ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jerzy Morawski: Lepiej, że ja jedna zginę ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German: It's better if I'm the only one who has to die), Rzeczpospolita , November 3, 2000, accessed June 10, 2009 (Polish)