Warsaw Uprising nurse Krystyna Ossowska-Cypryk dies

The news in Polish

1. sanitariuszka  (f.)
   osoba (zwykle kobieta), która opiekuje się rannymi lub chorymi, pomaga lekarzom i pielęgniarkom ↩︎
2. łączniczka  (f.)
   osoba (zwykle kobieta), która przenosi tajne informacje lub rozkazy między różnymi miejscami, np. w czasie wojny ↩︎
3. powstanie  (n.)
   zbrojny bunt ludzi przeciw władzy lub okupantowi ↩︎
4. biologia  (f.)
   nauka o życiu i organizmach żywych, takich jak rośliny, zwierzęta i człowiek ↩︎
5. naukowczyni  (f.)
   kobieta, która zawodowo zajmuje się nauką i prowadzi badania ↩︎
6. mikrobiologia  (f.)
   dziedzina biologii zajmująca się bardzo małymi organizmami, których nie widać gołym okiem, np. bakteriami ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: What did Krystyna Ossowska-Cypryk do to help people during the Warsaw Uprising?

Question 2: What did Krystyna Ossowska-Cypryk study after the war, and where did she later work?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
sanitariuszka  (f.)	female paramedic
łączniczka  (f.)	female liaison
powstanie  (n.)	uprising
biologia  (f.)	biology
naukowczyni  (f.)	female scientist
mikrobiologia  (f.)	microbiology

Read the full story

Krystyna Ossowska-Cypryk, a former nurse and courier in the Warsaw Uprising, has died at the age of 100, the Warsaw Rising Museum has announced.

According to a statement published by the museum, Ossowska-Cypryk died on 6 April. The institution wrote that it had received the news of her death “with sorrow” and described her as one of the participants in the Home Army’s Warsaw district during the 1944 uprising against Nazi German occupation.

Born on 19 May 1925, Ossowska-Cypryk attended a renowned girls’ school in central Warsaw before the Second World War. During the German occupation of Poland, she continued her education in underground classes, which were illegal under occupation rules, and at an official vocational chemistry school in the city centre. She passed her equivalent of the school-leaving exam (matura) shortly before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising as part of this secret education system.

When the uprising began in August 1944, Ossowska-Cypryk served in the I District “Radwan” (Śródmieście) of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), in the formation known as WSSpoł. – the Military Social Service. Initially, she worked as a nurse in an insurgent hospital located at Plac Trzech Krzyży (Three Crosses Square) in the building of the Institute for the Deaf. She later became a courier, carrying messages and orders between different units.

After the heavy bombing of major buildings such as the Prudential insurance building and the PKO Bank on Jasna Street, her duties changed again. From 16 August to 10 September 1944, she worked in a field canteen on Górskiego Street 4, which provided meals both for insurgents and for the civilian population. From 11 September until 2 October, the final phase of the uprising, she was based at an address on Złota Street 8 in central Warsaw.

After the war, Ossowska-Cypryk built a career in science and higher education. In 1951, she completed a master’s degree at the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of the University of Warsaw. Between 1962 and 1966, she pursued doctoral studies at the Faculty of Sanitary and Water Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1970, she defended her PhD thesis in air microbiology with distinction, becoming a specialist in the microbiology of air, an area important for environmental and public health.

From 1967, she worked in the Institute of Environmental Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology, first as a senior technical and scientific assistant, and from 1973 as a research and teaching fellow (adiunkt). Even after her formal retirement in 1990, she continued part-time as a senior specialist in the university’s Department of Sanitary Biology, contributing to research and education for many years.

Polish media reports have underlined both aspects of her life: her role as a Warsaw Uprising participant serving as a nurse and courier, and her later work as a scientist and academic focusing on environmental microbiology. The news of her death has been presented as part of a broader effort by institutions such as the Warsaw Rising Museum to document and preserve the experiences of the rapidly shrinking generation that lived through the uprising.

Info: ‘Polish Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Polish’, a language school dedicated to teaching Polish through a range of online courses designed to help you learn Polish. Through this service, we provide regular updates, materials and explanations to support your ongoing study of the language.