Draft:Alina Skarzyńska

• Comment: Completely unreferenced. DoubleGrazing (talk) 12:32, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

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Alina Skarzyńska (née Romanowska) a.k.a. "Fala" (born 17.01.1927 in Jabłonna near Warsaw, died 28.07.1966 in Warsaw) – member of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union of Armed Struggle) and the Armia Krajowa (the Home Army); liaison officer, combat rifleman and nurse in the Warsaw Uprising in the ranks of the Armia Krajowa; platoon leader of the Armia Krajowa; political prisoner of the Stalin period.

Biography

Alina Skarzyńska was born on 17.01.1927 as the only daughter of Witalis Romanowski and Amelia (née Krzyczkowska) in the village of Jabłonna near Warsaw. At the age of five, she lost her father, who died of tuberculosis. She studied in Warsaw at the Commercial Gymnasium, which she completed with the so-called „mała matura” exam.

Period of occupation

Alina Skarzyńska lived with her mother at 18 Długa Street in the Old Town of Warsaw (the house was burned down during the Warsaw Uprising). In the spring of 1943 (the exact date is unknown), at the age of about sixteen, she began her conspiracy activity in Związek Walki Zbrojnej, in which she took an oath. Her closest friends in the conspiracy were: Zofia Żochowska a.k.a. "Róża", Helena Żochowska a.k.a. "Janka", Melania Kozłowska a.k.a. "Wisła", Wanda Lewandowska a.k.a. "Wanda", Jadwiga Lewandowska a.k.a. "Iwona", Wanda Magnuszewska a.k.a. "Zebra", Władysława Magnuszewska a.k.a. "Zula".

A large part of her colleagues and later Gozdawa's battalion were involved in the activities of the fourth largest underground organization - "Miecz i Pług" (Sword and Plough). Establishing contacts with this particular community was probably dictated by accident - in the vicinity of her great-uncle's house at 64 Targowa Street, which she often visited, organized soldiers' briefings and weapons exercises conducted by members of the ZWZ and "Miecz i Pług", including Julian Głowacki a.k.a. "Ogórek" and Józef Jasiński a.k.a. "Wyrwa".

To the year 1943 can be dated Skarzyńska’s first contacts with Bogusław Hrynkiewicz - one of the leaders of "Miecz i Pług". In fact, he was an agent of the NKVD (and possibly also the Gestapo), who, at the request of Marian Spychalski and Moscow, worked on the circles of the Polish independence conspiracy - in particular the ZWZ (later the „Armia Krajowa” [Home Army]) and the "Miecz i Pług" organization. His role was unknown to the participants of the events until the 1950s, i.e. the time of Józef Światło's spectacular escape from the Polish People's Republic to the United States, when the fugitive describes Hrynkiewicz's activities for the first time.

Skarzyńska and her friends were delegated to work as distributors of the conspiracy press and conspiracy liaison officers operating in Warsaw.

The milieu in which she lived became a part of the Stefan Czarniecki "Gozdawa" Battalion - initially called the Praga Battalion or the Praga Unit. In April 1944 it became a part of the Armia Krajowa Group "Łukasiński".

Warsaw Uprising

During the Warsaw Uprising she was a nurse, liaison officer and combat rifleman. She fought in the Old Town and in the City Centre, in the company of Roman Rot a.k.a. "Jawor".

On July 28, 1944, she reported to the assembly point designated by the commanders at Dluga Street, waiting three days for the order to start fighting. She participated, m.in, in skirmishes over the building of the telephone exchange at Tłomackie Street (today's northern frontage of Bankowy Square), where German troops used combat gases, which "Fala" also poisoned itself with. On the so-called "Reduta Matki Boskiej", under enemy fire, she and her friends pulled wounded soldiers from the foreground. The lack of armament was felt at every step, Alina and her friends sometimes performed night watches without rifles. The girls had single grenades. The courage of her and her colleagues astonished the commanders. She took part in the bloody battles for the building of the Bank of Poland at Bielańska Street. In the last days of August, the command decided to evacuate soldiers capable of fighting from the Old Town to the City Centre. Despite her own wounds, Alina helped to carry her seriously wounded commander Roman Rot a.k.a. "Jawor" through the sewers (on the section from Krasiński Square to Warecka Street). For which she was later awarded Krzyż Walecznych (the Cross of Valour).

After a month of fighting in the city centre, as a result of the capitulation on 3 October 1944, together with a group of about fifteen people (inspired by one of the commanders - Second Lieutenant "Sokol"), she left the capital together with the civilian population. She was determined to continue her underground work.

Espionage Affair

Alina Skarzyńska, together with her friends and residents of Warsaw, was sent to a transit camp in Pruszków. With the help of their colleagues from the conspiracy, they managed to escape from it and get to Skierniewice, where the "Miecz i Pług" command was located.

There, the girls were given a task by Mieczysław Przystasz a.k.a. "Pług" and Bogusław Hrynkiewicz to cross the front line, which was to take place on the night of 28/29 November 1944.

"Fala" and her friends were transported to Modlin, where, to their disbelief, they ended up in the headquarters of the German SD (with whom Hrynkiewicz probably had some agreements). Manoeuvred into this situation, with the task of crossing the front line and obtaining information about the Soviet army's support for the Polish conspiracy, they stayed at the headquarters of the SD - a hostile intelligence organization. It was incomprehensible to them, but they did not dare to question the orders of their evidence.

On December 2, 1944, the transfer ended in a fiasco, one of her friends, Melania Kozłowska a.k.a. "Wisła", was shot, while Skarzyńska and the others were arrested by the soldiers of the Polish Army - which was a great luck for them, because those detained by Soviet soldiers were shot on the spot.

Trial and imprisonment

Immediately after her arrest, a brutal interrogation was launched on charges of spying for Nazi Germany - particularly severe for a Polish resistance activist. The investigation was conducted by a Soviet NKVD officer and translator.

Skarzyńska was transferred to the Special Prison at the Lublin Castle (a dozen or so of her fellow prisoners were shot during the transport). After many hours of brutal interrogations conducted by the senior investigator of the Main Information Directorate of the Polish Army, Captain Władysław Czerniawski, she signed the interrogation protocols. In December 1945, she spent her first Christmas away from home - in prison.

On 27 January 1945, the Military Garrison Court in Lublin sentenced Alina Skarzyńska to prison and deprivation of public rights for five years. Throughout her imprisonment, her mother Amelia wrote petitions (including personally to President Bolesław Bierut) for a commutation of the sentence and pardon - they were always rejected.

She remained in the Lublin Castle prison until 26 May 1945. She was then transferred to the prison in Wronki, where she remained until 2 January 1946, and then to the prison in Fordon.

"Fala" and her friends were treated cruelly in prison because of the sentence of spying for Germany - the behavior of their fellow prisoners, common criminals, changed when they found out that the prisoners were in fact members of the Polish resistance movement. In the last of the prisons, "Fala" read a lot, made "sculptures" out of bread, wrote poems and worked in a tailor's workshop (where a case for a bread gorget and a liaison doll were made).

Also in prison, Skarzyńska remained rebellious. Perhaps that is why she was held responsible by the prison warden for the prisoners' rebellion, which ended with a short-term improvement in the treatment of the inmates.

She served her sentence in full. This ruined her chances of completing her education (she wanted to study art history), and the mark of a criminal prevented her from finding a job for many years. She was under surveillance by the Security Office for many years after her release from prison.

It is worth noting that Skarzyńska did not decide to cooperate with the soviet secret services and maintained her steadfast attitude, unlike many of her colleagues who, subjected to pressure, harassment and persecution, began to cooperate with the repressive apparatus.

On 13 July 1957, twelve years after her arrest, the rehabilitation process of Skarzyńska and her friends began, which ended with their exoneration. It was one of many similar processes to clear the name of Polish independence activists that began during the "thaw" after the death of Joseph Stalin.

In 1952 she married Romuald Skarzyński, with whom she had three daughters: Ewa, Hanna and Renata.

She died on 28.07.1966 and was buried at the Bródnowski Cemetery in Warsaw (section 20G).

Orders and decorations

• Cross of Valour IPN BU 819/8 t.1 and t.2,
• Silver Cross of Merit with Swords (ID card destroyed - daughters' account),
• Cross of the Home Army (book of granting, Studium Polish Podziemnej, London, leg. 1174),
• Warsaw Uprising Cross (by Resolution of the Council of State No. O-27 of 10 February 1982)
• Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 (by Resolution of the Council of State No. O/431 of 18 September 1961)
• Partisan Cross IPN BU 819/8 t.1 and t.2

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• 1966 deaths
• 1927 births