SERVICE OF THE MEMBERS

of the Women’s Military Training

IN WARSAW UPRISING

kpt. Stefania Kudelska “Hanna”

16 VIII 1890 – 12 VIII 1944

Deal officer of the Women's Auxiliary Service of the Major Command of the Home Army

An officer of the Polish Army, an instructor at the District and State Office of Physical Education and Military Training. She served in the Riflemen’s Association, the Polish Legions, and was a member of the Polish Military Organisation. From 1918 to 1920, she served in the courier and intelligence service of the Polish Army Headquarters. She was a co-founder of Women’s Military Training, in subsequent years an instructor, and from 1934 an inspector of WMT and the editor of the magazine “For the Future”. She was arrested and imprisoned several times during the years 1914-1918. She was repeatedly decorated for her activities with the highest state and military decorations.

From 1935 to 1938, she was a senator of the Republic of Poland, and from 1938 to 1939, a member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. In September 1939, she participated in the defense of Lviv in the women’s auxiliary military battalion, which was part of the Lviv National Defense Brigade. In November, she returned to Warsaw and became involved in the secret education campaign in the Public Enlightenment Commission of the Home Army. She worked in the Main Welfare Council and as the vice-chair of the Social Assistance Committee in District VIII.

From the first days of the Warsaw Uprising, she was experienced as a Major Welfare Association activist and organized neighborhood assistance in the simplest needs: providing food and water, treating the wounded, caring for homeless civilians, and lost children.

Economic Service in PWK

Economic training in PWK was aimed primarily at the rational preparation and management of households in wartime conditions. The courses covered a wide range of topics, including:

  • Crop cultivation, animal husbandry, horticulture;
  • Lingerie and tailoring;
  • Laundry, ironing, and dyeing of clothes;
  • Knitwear production;
  • Cooking and food preservation;
  • Rational use of heating resources.

These trainings were conducted by appropriately trained instructors for the PWK camp participants and in the form of courses and lectures directly for housewives. Several months before the outbreak of the war, training in the above-mentioned areas intensified, and all tasks related to economic training were taken over by the PWK Social Emergency Service established in 1939. The forms of activity were expanded to include the development and distribution of training brochures on this topic, which were then distributed through local circles and collaborating women’s associations. Mobile promotional exhibitions and a specialized library-reading room for household management instructors were also organized. Courses on collective nutrition in wartime conditions were also initiated, separately directed to managers and employees of collective catering facilities. The courses were based on specially prepared training materials, considering the principles of dietetics, kitchen and warehouse organization methods, and data on estimated needs for collective nutrition actions.

Main Welfare Council

The Main Welfare Council (RGO) – a Polish charitable organization, with a name and forms of activity reminiscent of the organization of the same name that existed from 1916 to 1921. It operated during World War II with the consent of the occupying authorities from February 1940 to January 1945. RGO’s assistance was used by approximately 700-900 thousand people annually.

RGO’s funding sources included funds from the occupying authorities, foreign aid, secret subsidies from the Polish government in exile, and the generosity of society. RGO’s activities included, among others: running orphanages, medical aid points, and soup kitchens for the poor, sending parcels to prisoners of war and detainees, providing relief payments, and distributing clothing and food. Vocational courses and craft workshops were also conducted to provide employment under occupation conditions. RGO provided assistance in resettling evacuees and refugees from Wielkopolska, Pomorze, Zamojszczyzna, and Wołyń to the General Government.

RGO employed, usually without pay, about 15,000 people. RGO committees in Warsaw carried out about 50% of the organization’s activities, but during the Warsaw Uprising, they became disorganized. RGO employees spontaneously engaged in various forms of social assistance, trying to revive former committee facilities. The Polish Welfare Committee Warsaw-City resumed its activities in the second decade of August and operated until the end of the Uprising under the name Main Welfare Council – Board for the city of Warsaw. During the Warsaw Uprising and after its collapse, RGO set up makeshift hospitals and assisted the civilian population of Warsaw after being expelled from the city.

Archival photographs

  1. Stefania Kudelska /source: Central Military Archives
  2. The logistics team preparing meals during the exercises of the Air Defense Units of the Women’s Military Training in Kraków in 1938 /General Zawacka Foundation
  3. Kitchen in the “Adria” building at Moniuszki 10. Photo by Eugeniusz Lokajski /public domain
  4. Field kitchen of the Soldiers’ Aid (PŻ or “Peżetki”) under the command of Major Hanna Łukaszewicz “Ludwika.”/public domain