lit a candle 8h agoShe fought in 1944 and kept fighting for justice in 2020 and 2024. That's the whole story right there. From the uprising to the streets, same courage, same principle.
Their story
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska (pseudonyms Pączek and Atma) was a Polish psychologist, special-education teacher, and social activist whose public life stretched from the Warsaw underground of World War II to the civic arguments of twenty-first-century Poland. She was born in Warsaw on 7 April 1927, the daughter of Szczepan and Bronisława. She…
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska (pseudonyms Pączek and Atma) was a Polish psychologist, special-education teacher, and social activist whose public life stretched from the Warsaw underground of World War II to the civic arguments of twenty-first-century Poland. She was born in Warsaw on 7 April 1927, the daughter of Szczepan and Bronisława. She attended primary schools in Bródno and Mokotów, belonged to the 42nd Żwirki i Wigury scout troop, and lived with her family on Dolna Street before the war.
Under German occupation she entered the independence conspiracy in 1942. As a member of the Gray Ranks (Szare Szeregi) she took part in minor sabotage and in Operation N, delivering warning letters to collaborators and informers. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 she served as a gunner and liaison officer in the Covering Detachment of the Military Publishing Works (WZW) of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda at Home Army Headquarters, a disposition unit linked to Antoni Chruściel ("Monter"). She fought in northern and southern Śródmieście and in Powiśle, including efforts to hold the power plant. On 6 September 1944 she was seriously wounded on Smolna Street. After the uprising's capitulation she became a German prisoner of war and was held in Stalag VIII-B, Stalag IV-B, Stalag IV-E, and Stalag VI-C.
She returned to Poland in 1947, graduated in psychology from the University of Warsaw, and devoted decades to teaching children with special needs, including work at Special School No. 6 in Praga and for many years at Special Primary School No. 3 on Ząbkowska Street. Parallel to classroom work she became one of the principal civilian guardians of uprising memory: she helped locate insurgents' graves, chaired the Social Committee for the Cemetery of Warsaw Insurgents at the World Association of Home Army Soldiers, co-initiated the Sejm's 2 October Remembrance Day for Civilian Insurgents of Warsaw (2015), and pressed for a memorial chamber in the park of the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery in Wola.
In later life she remained a public moral voice. In 2018 she supported the Sejm protest by people with disabilities and their carers. In 2020 she backed Rafał Trzaskowski's presidential campaign, joined Women's Strike protests against the near-total abortion ban, and criticised partisan misuse of the Fighting Poland (Kotwica) symbol. On 10 October 2021, speaking at Castle Square during a pro-EU rally, she famously silenced a nationalist heckler with the rebuke "Milcz, głupi chłopie..." ("Be quiet, you stupid peasant..."), framing her presence as speaking for comrades who had died. She argued that patriotism meant community, empathy, and immediate resistance to evil, and in later anniversary speeches she called Germany a neighbour for peace and urged solidarity with Ukraine.
She received the Cross of Valour, the German Order of Merit Cross (2015), honorary citizenship of Warsaw (2017), Gazeta Wyborcza's "Stool" award (2015), the Gold Badge of the Polish Teachers' Union (2019), a Campaign Against Homophobia "Crown of Equality" (2020), the Jan Rodowicz "Anoda" honorary award from the Warsaw Uprising Museum (2021), and Warsaw Woman of the Year (2021). She was the subject of Marianna Bukowski's documentary Portrait of a Soldier and of Michał Wójcik's book Błyskawica.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska died in Warsaw on 18 August 2026 at the age of 99. No public cause of death was stated. Her funeral Mass was held on 31 August 2026 at Holy Cross Church in Warsaw, with Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz presiding and Archbishop Adrian Galbas preaching; she was buried at the Evangelical Augsburg Cemetery on Młynarska Street. The family asked for donations to Sister Małgorzata Chmielewska's Fundacja Domy Wspólnoty Chleb Życia in lieu of flowers. Her older sister Kazimiera Wszoła had died six days earlier, on 12 August 2026. This memorial is for Wanda Traczyk-Stawska alone. It is not a profile of her sister Kazimiera Wszoła, and it is not to be merged with other Warsaw Uprising veterans.
Biography adapted from EN Wikipedia Wanda Traczyk-Stawska (CC BY-SA); PAP/Dzieje.pl 2026-08-19; Notes from Poland; Warsaw Uprising Museum; funeral RP/WP 2026-08-31.
In their own words
“Nie stój, nie patrz, gdy się zło dzieje, tylko reaguj natychmiast, bo to jest twój obowiązek.”
Widely cited credo ("Do not stand, do not watch when evil happens; react immediately, for that is your duty"), quoted by Donald Tusk in his 19 August 2026 tribute.
“Milcz, głupi chłopie… milcz, bo ja jestem żołnierzem, który pamięta, jak krew się lała…”
Castle Square, Warsaw, 10 October 2021, rebuking a heckler while speaking for fallen comrades.
“Women fought in the uprising for freedom because there is no dignity without freedom; if treated as incubators, they have the right to fight for dignity.”
On Women's Strike, remarks to TVN in 2020 (English paraphrase of verified Polish interview theme).
“Women in the uprising gained equal standing with male fighters, and constitutional equality is not disposable.”
Anniversary framing reported in 2023 coverage of her remarks on women's equal standing.
“Excessive recklessness ends badly, but everyone can and should answer evil within their strength.”
On courage; interview paraphrase used in PAP sylwetka profiles of her life.
Photos
2Wanda Traczyk-Stawska at Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery, 1 November 2022
by People Forever
Yes. The quiet kind of bravery is the hardest to find.