SERVICE OF THE MEMBERS

of the Women’s Military Training

IN WARSAW UPRISING

Halina Wiśniewska (z d. Rybak) ps. “Halina”

1 III 1922 - 7 XI 2020

Lieutenant of the Polish Army, liaison officer of the Home Army's 2nd Assault Battalion "Odwet" (Retaliation)

A native of Warsaw, a member of the Women’s Military Training. She described her childhood as “typical” for the Second Polish Republic – she was a Girl Scout and a member of the Warsaw branch of the Women’s Military Training. At the beginning of World War II on September 1, 1939, she was ordered to participate in auxiliary service at the Warsaw Telephone Company. In 1940, she met her husband, who was involved in the Union of Armed Struggle. As a result, in 1941, she was drawn into the resistance movement, and her apartment served as a contact point. In 1943, she completed a two-year secondary school under the guidance of Helena Grabowska at 16 Królewska Street in Warsaw.

In June 1943, she married Józef Wiśniewski. On the day of the Warsaw Uprising, she gave birth to their daughter.

In October 1944, along with the civilian population, she managed to leave the ruined Warsaw. However, after the end of the war, she returned to the capital and was fortunately reunited with her husband. For her merits, she was awarded the Warsaw Uprising Cross, the Home Army Cross, the Military Medal, and other decorations. 

Halina Wiśniewska was also an Honorary Member of the Association of the Nationwide Group for Historical Reenactment of PWK.

Summer and Winter Camps and Child Care

As part of specialist training in the general military program, individuals could receive training in childcare. Topics included nutrition and hygiene for infants and young children, child-rearing methods, and games and activities for the youngest children. Instructors also received knowledge in the prevention of childhood diseases. After the theoretical part, practical training in nurseries and preschools was mandatory. Working within Social Work Teams provided a perfect opportunity for this, becoming an accepted form of work for trained PWK members over time. Work areas included school and military day rooms, but primarily children’s hostels, nurseries, and PWK day rooms. Care and educational work were organized for a wide range of children, including those without daily care.

Specialized training camps, both summer and winter, were a particular method of training. They served to deepen practical knowledge, improve physical fitness, and teach cooperation. In 1938, the organization had six permanent camp locations: Garczyn, Koszewniki, Istebna, Spała, Redłowo, and Borowo. The camps lasted 3-4 weeks, with a daily schedule similar to that of a military unit – wake-up, morning report, duty, orders, assembly, and lights out. The main emphasis was on physical education, field knowledge, marksmanship, field and camp service, rescue, anti-aircraft, and gas defence. It was discovered that this form of training yielded much better results than the activities conducted throughout the year in units.

In winter, the PWK shelter in Istebna also provided an opportunity for skiing instruction.

During the summer of 1939, amid intensive training efforts due to the threat of war, 52 training camps were organised.

Civilian Population in the Uprising

The majority of Warsaw residents welcomed the outbreak of the Uprising with enthusiasm. According to the plans of the Home Army command, armed combat was supposed to last a few days and end with the Germans being driven out of the capital. Therefore, civilians eagerly joined in to assist the soldiers. Warsaw citizens built barricades and fortifications, organized field kitchens for the fighters, acted as medics, and some of them volunteered for the insurgent units.

However, as the fighting dragged on, daily bombings and increasing cruelty of the occupier towards the Warsaw citizens weakened civilian morale. On Hitler’s orders, Germans began brutally suppressing the Uprising, which particularly turned into a massacre in Wola and Ochota. The pacification there took the form of mass executions, accompanied by rape, looting, and arson.

The symbol of the Wola extermination became Wanda Lurie – the “Warsaw Niobe.” On August 5, 1944, nine months pregnant, she was driven with her three children and hundreds of district residents to the “Ursus” factory, where Russian Liberation Army units committed mass genocide, also killing Wanda’s children. Severely wounded herself, she lay for two days under a pile of the dead. After managing to escape onto the street, she was captured again and transported to the camp in Pruszków. On August 20, 1944, she gave birth to a son, Mścisław, who survived the war.

The “Wola Massacre,” as this event is called, was the largest genocide committed against civilians in Europe during World War II.

After the Uprising’s collapse, the entire civilian population was expelled to the transit camp Dulag 121 in Pruszków, and from there, into the depths of the General Government, for forced labour in the Third Reich and concentration camps. Before August 1, 1944, Warsaw was inhabited by 900,000 people; after the Uprising’s fall, slightly over 1,000 people, the so-called Warsaw Robinsons, survived in the ruins until January 1945.

Archival photographs

  1. Halina Wiśniewska with little Stasiek shortly after the uprising /family of Halina Wisniewska
  2. The tent housing the recreational center for local children. Women’s Military Training Camp in Istebna /public domain
  3. North Śródmieście. Wanda Wysocka, wearing a headscarf, feeding her daughter Sylwia with warmed milk from a metal saucepan. Private apartment at Sienna Street. Photo by Joachim Joachimczyk /Warsaw Uprising Museum
  4. A boy with a cow at the barricade on the corner of Nowy Świat and Ordynacka Streets. Photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski / public domain