Warsaw Uprising nurse Janina Rożecka dies at 104

The news in Polish

1. sanitariuszka  (f.)
   osoba, zwykle kobieta, która udziela pierwszej pomocy medycznej i pomaga lekarzom oraz pielęgniarkom, zwłaszcza w czasie wojny ↩︎
2. powstanie  (n.)
   zbrojny bunt ludności przeciw władzy lub okupantowi, zwykle w obronie wolności ↩︎
3. odwaga  (f.)
   cecha człowieka, który nie boi się trudnych lub niebezpiecznych sytuacji i potrafi wtedy działać ↩︎
4. otrzymać
   dostać coś, zwykle oficjalnie lub jako nagrodę ↩︎
5. medal  (m.)
   metalowy krążek przyznawany jako nagroda lub wyróżnienie za ważne osiągnięcia ↩︎
6. świadectwo  (n.)
   dowód na coś, potwierdzenie jakiegoś faktu; także dokument opisujący wydarzenia lub osiągnięcia ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: What did Janina Rożecka do during the Warsaw Uprising?

Question 2: Why did Janina Rożecka receive the medal Righteous Among the Nations?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
sanitariuszka  (f.)	female paramedic
powstanie  (n.)	uprising
odwaga  (f.)	courage
otrzymać	to receive
medal  (m.)	medal
świadectwo  (n.)	testimony

Read the full story

Janina Rożecka, known by her underground name “Dora”, a nurse of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and a Righteous Among the Nations, has died at the age of 104, Polish organisations and media have reported.

The news of her death was announced on 11 February by the foundation “Nie Zapomnij o Nas, Powstańcach Warszawskich” (“Do Not Forget Us, Warsaw Insurgents”). The information was also confirmed by journalist Małgorzata Czerwińska-Buczek, author of Rożecka’s biography “Sanitariuszka Dora: Nie było czasu na strach” (“Nurse Dora: There Was No Time for Fear”).

Messages of condolence and gratitude quickly appeared on social media. Commenters described Rożecka as a “living book” of history and stressed that with the death of people like her, the last direct witnesses of the Second World War are passing away. Many users thanked her for her courage, sacrifice and wartime service, and wrote that the memory of such figures “must not disappear”.

Rożecka was born on 6 January 1922 in Stryj (then in Poland, today in Ukraine). Her father, Mieczysław Gutowski, was an officer of the Polish Army and one of the victims of the Soviet NKVD. He was murdered in Starobilsk in 1940, as part of the broader Katyń crime against Polish officers.

Rożecka joined the Polish underground resistance in 1942. During the German occupation, she, her mother Leonia and her sister Wanda hid six Jewish people, a member of the elite Polish paratroopers known as the “Cichociemni”, and weapons for the resistance in their villa in the Warsaw district of Żoliborz. Among those they sheltered were Irena Palenker and Henryk Teichert.

For these actions, the three women were honoured in 1988 by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem with the medal “Righteous Among the Nations”, one of the highest recognitions given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Rożecka, her sister (known in the underground as “Irena”) and their mother were all awarded together.

During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Rożecka served as a nurse on Żoliborz in the 2nd District of the “Żywiciel” Grouping of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), in the unit called “Żaglowiec”. In an interview recorded for the Oral History Archive of the Warsaw Rising Museum, she explained that she had deliberately chosen medical service. She said she did not want to become a courier or a fighter, because she had already studied medicine and taken hospital training courses, so she decided to use these skills and volunteered for hospital duty.

In her testimonies, Rożecka recalled both the excitement and fear of the first days of the uprising. She described how at the beginning, people on Żoliborz watched the aircraft overhead without much fear, but that later, when heavy bombing started, they had to hide and seek shelter. She remembered digging trenches and preparing bandages and medical supplies in anticipation of the fighting.

One of her most often quoted memories concerns a traumatic moment in a field hospital. Rożecka recounted how she was carrying a wounded insurgent through a window to move him to safety. She gave him water, and he answered that he would no longer need it. Moments later, a shell exploded nearby and killed the man she was trying to save. She later called this memory one of the most painful experiences of her life.

After the capitulation of the uprising in October 1944, Rożecka left Warsaw together with the civilian population. Unlike many captured fighters, she avoided being sent to German prisoner-of-war camps, but like thousands of Warsaw residents she had to leave the destroyed city.

In the decades after the war, Rożecka was repeatedly recognised for her resistance and humanitarian work. She received, among others, the Warsaw and London Crosses of the Warsaw Uprising, the Cross of Merit (Knight’s Cross) and the Partisan Cross. However, many commentators and institutions emphasise that the title Righteous Among the Nations remains one of the most symbolic distinctions in her biography, as it honours risk taken to save persecuted Jews.

Polish media underline that Rożecka was one of the last surviving participants of the Warsaw Uprising. For historians, schools and museums, eyewitnesses like her have been key to explaining to younger generations what occupation, resistance and urban warfare were like in practice, beyond school textbooks.

After the announcement of her death, the foundation caring for Warsaw insurgents wrote: “Rest in peace, Hero”, and sent condolences to her family and friends. Internet users added short farewell messages such as “Thank you for Poland” and “Let the memory remain”. Commentators across different outlets point out that, with Rożecka’s passing, Poland loses not only a decorated veteran and rescuer of Jews, but also a direct witness whose personal story connected several key chapters of 20th‑century Polish history.

Info: ‘Polish Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Polish’, a language school dedicated to teaching Polish online. As part of our work, we offer different kinds of online Polish lessons, and each Polish course is designed to help learners progress step by step.