Danuta Siedzikówna



Danuta Siedzikówna (nom de guerre: Inka; underground name: Danuta Obuchowicz; born September 3, 1928, Guszczewina – died August 28, 1946, Gdansk) was a medical orderly in the 4th Squadron (created in the Białystok area) of the 5th Wilno Brigade of the Polish Home Army. In 1946 she served with the Brigade's 1st Squadron in Poland's Pomorze (Pomerania) region.

Early life


Siedzikówna was born on 3 September 1928 in the village of Guszczewina, near Narewka, in the Bielsk Podlaski district. Her father, Wacław Siedzik was a forester who had been sent to Siberia under the Tsar for being involved in pro-Polish independence organizations. He came back to Poland in 1923. In 1940 he was arrested by the NKVD and once again deported to Russia. In 1941 he joined Władysław Anders' Polish Army (died in Teheran in 1942). Her mother, Eugenia, née Tymińskia Prus III coat of arms, was a member of the Home Army and was killed by the Gestapo in September 1943. Danuta Siedzikówna grew up with her siblings, Wiesława (1927–2004) and Irena (1931? - 1978), in the forester's lodge near Guszczewina (when were exiled Wacław they moved to Narewka), the girls attended grammar school in Narewka until 1939. During the Second World War, until 1943 all three girls studied in the Salesian Sisters School in Różanystok near Dąbrowa Białostocka.

Second World War and thereafter


After their mother was murdered by the Gestapo in Białystok, together with her sister Wiesława, Danuta joined the Home Army in late 1943 or early 1944. As part of the underground army's training she acquired medical skills.

After the Soviets took Białystok from the German Nazis, she started work as a clerk in the forest inspectorate in Hajnówka.

Together with other employees of the inspectorate she was arrested in June 1945 by NKWD and UB for collaboration with the anticommunist underground. She was liberated from a prison transport convoy by a patrol of a Wilno group of ex-Home Army partisans commanded by Stanisław Wołonciej "Konus", a subordinate of Zygmunt Szendzielarz, "Łupaszko", who were operating in the area. "Konus" took the freed prisoners to "Łupaszko"'s camp where some of them, including Danuta, joined his group. Subsequently Siedzikówna served as a medical orderly in the "Konus" troop, and then in the squadron of lieutenant Jan Mazur, "Piast", and that of lieutenant Marian Płuciński, "Mścisław". For a short period of time her superior was also lieutenant Leon Beynar "Nowina", deputy of "Łupaszko", later known as "Paweł Jasienica" - a notable Polish historian and writer. During this time Danuta assumed pseudonym "Inka".

The "Łupaszko" brigade was dissolved in September 1945 and Danuta went back to work in the forest inspectorate in Miłomłyn in Ostróda County under the name "Danuta Obuchowicz". However, the brigade was re-mobilized in response to Communist repressions in January 1946. In the early spring of 1946 Danuta came into contact with second lieutenant Zdzisław Badocha "Żelazny", the commander of one of Łupaszko's squadrons. Afer "Żelazny"'s death, the new commander, second lieutenant Olgierd Christa "Leszek", ordered Danuta to travel to Gdańsk in order to collect medical supplies.

She was arrested by the UB again on 20 July 1946, in Gdańsk. While in prison she was tortured and beaten but refused to give up any information about her contacts in the anti-communist underground and their meeting points. Danuta's brutal interrogations were personally supervised by the Head of the Investigations Department at the Voivodeship Office for Public Security, (WUBP), (Polish Secret Police) in Gdańsk, Józef Bik, vel Jozef Gawerski, vel Jozef Bukar. In 1968, Bik, vel Bukar emigrated to Sweden. An IPN indictment against Bik, vel Gawerski, vel Bukar reads: "Jozef B. is accused of participating in court-sanctioned murders perpetrated against members of Polish Democratic Forces (pol. Polskie Siły Demokratyczne) and Polish Secret Army (pol. Polska Armia Tajna) whom he was beating and torturing in order to extract confessions”.

Trial and death
She was charged with taking an active, violent part in an attack on functionaries of the Communist UB (Polish secret police) and the Milicja Obywatelska near village Podjazy as part of the Łupaszko unit, despite the fact that she was only a medic. She was accused of shooting at the policemen and even issuing orders to other partisans. However, the testimony submitted by MO and UB members involved in the fight was at best contradictory, as some claimed to have seen her shooting and giving orders, while other denied it altogether. One (Mieczysław Mazur) even testified that Danuta gave him first aid after he was wounded by other partisans. She was also charged with killing wounded policemen, which was also contradicted during her trial. Given such conflicting testimony and the absurdity of the charges, even the Stalinist court decided that she did not take a direct part in the attack. Despite these findings, and ignoring Danuta's young age (she was only seventeen at the time), the court still sentenced her to death. The president of People's Republic of Poland, Boleslaw Bierut refused to grant her clemency (the request was submitted by Danuta's public defender, and she herself refused to sign it). Danuta Siedzikówna was executed (along with Feliks Selmanowicz nom de guerre "Zagończyk"), six days before her 18th birthday, on 28 August 1946, in a Gdańsk prison.



The last minutes of her life are known from the testimony of Marian Prusak, the priest who was called to give "Inka" and "Zagończyk" last rites. According to Prusak both prisoners were calm before their execution. Siedzikówna, after taking the Sacrament of Penance, asked Prusak to inform her family of her death and gave him their address. Afterward the two were executed in the basement of the prison, tied to wooden stakes. They both refused blindfolds. When the prosecutor gave the order for the execution squad to fire, both simultaneously shouted "Long Live Poland!" Danuta was still alive however, and the coup de grace was delivered by the present prosecutor, Franciszek Sawicki (the members of the firing squad refused to do so). Danuta's Protocol of Execution was signed by: Major Wiktor Suchacki, (Prosecutor), Firing Squad Leader, 2nd Lt. Franciszek Sawicki, Attending Physician, Captain Mieczysław Rutkowski, and Jail Warden Jan Wójcik.

Later events
Marian Prusak did deliver the news of Danuta's death to her family, although they had already found out through other sources. Unbeknown to him he was under UB surveillance, and in 1949 he was charged with "espionage" for informing Danuta's family about her murder. For doing just that, he spent three and a half years in Communist prison. After the fall of communism in Poland, the main Stalinist prosecutor in Danuta's trial who demanded the death penalty, Wacław Krzyżanowski, was brought up on charges of judicial murder twice (in 1993 and 2001). However, both times he was declared innocent of the charges (Krzyżanowski argued that he was only marginally involved with the case).

Awards
On Independence Day 11 November 2006, Polish President Lech Kaczyński posthumously awarded Danuta Siedzikówna the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Film
In January 2007, a movie about Danuta Siedzikówna last days, "Inka 1946. Ja jedna zginę", featuring actress Karolina Kominek-Skuratowicz in the title role and Natalia Korynckia-Gruz as a producer, was released by Teleplay.

Patronage

 * Park im. sanitariuszki Inki in Sopot,
 * Grammary School in Podjazy, near Sulęczyno in Kartuzy County in Pomeranian Voivodeship
 * Gymnasium no 2 in Ostrołęka in Masovian Voivodeship
 * 3 Sokólska Drużyna Wędrownicza ZHP
 * 95 Tomaszowska Drużyna Harcerek "SZAROTKA" ZHP belonged to Headquarters Hufiec ZHP in Piotrków Trybunalski
 * 1 Ostrołęcka Drużyna Harcerek "Ignis" ZHR
 * 37 Gdyńska Drużyna Harcerek "Biedronki" ZHR
 * 44 Mazowiecka Drużyna Harcerek "Kasjopea" ZHR in Warszawy

Memorials

 * Memorial plaque in the Marien Basilica, Gdańsk
 * Memorial in Park imienia Sanitariuszki Inki, Sopot
 * Memorial near the parish church, Narewka
 * Symbolical grave at the Garrison Cemetery, Gdańsk
 * Monument in Jordan Park in Kraków - 16 September 2012 r.

Sources and references

 * link to Polonia Restituta Information
 * Prospect about Inka
 * Account of Execution given by Reverend Marian Prusak, "Inka's" Confessor