SERVICE OF THE MEMBERS

of the Women’s Military Training

IN WARSAW UPRISING

ppor. Janina Kurowska (z d. Kulesza) ps. “Janka”

10 IX 1919 - 21 IX 2014

Secretary to the chief of the Secret Military Printing Works of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Home Army

Before the war, she was a member of the Women’s Military Training, where she received full training. In 1937, she graduated from high school, and a year later, she began Polish studies at the University of Warsaw.

During the occupation, she spent time with her family in Warsaw, where she volunteered to work in the Information Office of the Polish Red Cross. She completed a course for secretaries and also worked at the Paper and Textile Warehouse J. Robak.

In September 1942, she was sworn in as a soldier of the Home Army and assigned to the Women’s Auxiliary Service. After the outbreak of the Uprising, she joined the Protective Unit of the Secret Military Printing Works, where her brother served.

After the Uprising, she was captured by the Germans and sent to the camp in Lamsdorf, near Mühlberg, Altenburg, and then to Molsdorf with other female officers of the Home Army. After liberation, she moved to Burg, where she led a choir and also worked as a translator in contacts with the American authorities. In September 1945, she married Krzesław Kurowski.

After the war, she worked as a translator, accountant, teacher, lecturer, and Warsaw guide for the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society. She was an honorary citizen of the city of Piastów.

Office Service Training in PWK

One of the vocational training departments conducted as part of Women’s Military Training was learning about office service.

Skills acquired during training prepared individuals for employment in education, offices, local and state administration, public utility companies, as well as in telegraph and postal services.

In 1938, after the publication of the text “Tasks in the field of national defence,” there was a provision regarding the necessity of preparing female reserves for administrative service as well. This was to standardize potential office service training.

In cooperation with the “Civil Service” association, office clerks were to undergo approximately 100 hours of practical and theoretical classes, as well as a week of practice in the indicated military administrative unit. They often managed libraries, taught correspondence writing, and educated the population in matters of writing and handling official and financial matters.

The PWK members who completed the office service course were not only adept at working with documentation, regulations, and rules but also skillfully organized office work in their environment. This became an invaluable resource after the outbreak of war in 1939 when the need for positions supporting the army increased.

Secret Military Printing Works

The Secret Military Printing Works (TWZW) was established in February 1940. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the word “secret” was removed from its name. This department was responsible for the press and publishing activities of the Information and Propaganda Bureau of the Home Army Main Command.

The head of the TWZW was Jerzy “Michał Kmita” Rutkowski – an educated lawyer, editor, and organizer. Thanks to him, TWZW became the largest underground enterprise. It had 12 printing houses, which, despite the advancing fighting in the Uprising, did not cease operation.

Before the Uprising, TWZW employed 50 workers, among whom women soldiers of the Home Army played a huge role. They often combined work in the plants with additional tasks. Among them were Maria “Janka” Rutkowska, the head of the department for producing forged documents, Helena “Ewa” Górska or Zofia “Barbara” Chmyzowska as well as Maria “Krystyna” Stefanowska.

TWZW’s extensive activities included communication, ensuring continuous contact between facilities, printing documents and underground press, as well as informational leaflets. The aim was to counteract the occupier’s propaganda. These activities also required constantly obtaining up-to-date information.

On the night preceding the capitulation of the Uprising, TWZW printed the final bulletin numbered 102, which contained the last order of General “Bór” directed to the fighters. This concluded the department’s activity in the Uprising.

We owe to TWZW the first edition of the book “Stones for the Rampart” by Aleksander Kamiński and the first national edition of “No. 303 Squadron” by Arkady Fiedler.

Archival photographs

  1. Janina Kulesza-Kurowska /General Zawacka Foundation
  2. For the Future: publication of the Social Committee for the Preparation of Women for National Defense. 1930 No. 2
  3. Telephone operator at work, probably in the “Adria” building at Moniuszki 10. Photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski /public domain
  4. Cover of the first edition of “Kamienie na szaniec” 1943 /public domain