Danuta Helena Siedzikówna (nom de guerre: Inka; underground name: Danuta Obuchowicz; 3 September 1928 â 28 August 1946) was a Polish medical orderly in the 4th Squadron of the 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army. In 1946 she served with the Brigade's 1st Squadron in Poland's Pomerania region. Considered a national heroine, she was captured, tortured and sentenced to death at the age of 17 by the communist authorities.
Siedzikówna was born on 3 September 1928 in Guszczewina, near Narewka, Bielsk Podlaski. Her father, Wacà Âaw Siedzik, was a forester sent to Siberia under the Tsar for involvement in pro-Polish independence organisations. He came back to Poland in 1923. In 1940 he was arrested by the NKVD and once again deported to Russia.
In 1941 her father Wacà Âaw Siedzik joined Wà Âadysà Âaw Anders' Polish Army (he died in Teheran in 1943). Her mother, Eugenia, née Tymià Âska, was a member of the Home Army and was killed by the Gestapo in September 1943. She was the granddaughter of engineer Jan Tyminski and the great-granddaughter of the Orthodox priest Herman Tymià Âski and Karl Rjepetsky, a Russian Lieutenant Colonel whose body was discovered in Ardahan in 2017.
The son of Waclaw's sister, Paweà  Hur, finished the Polish Air Force Academy in DÃÂblin and took part in Battle of Britain. Siedzikówna grew up with her siblings Wiesà Âawa (17.03.1927âÂÂ29.06.2004) and Irena Laska (19.02.1931 - 02.04.1978) in the forester's lodge near Guszczewina. After their father was exiled, 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 RÃ³à ¼anystok near Dàbrowa Biaà Âostocka.
After their mother was murdered by the Gestapo in Biaà Âystok, together with her sister Wiesà Âawa, 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 Biaà Âystok from the German Nazis, she started work as a clerk in the forest inspectorate in Hajnówka.
With other employees of the inspectorate, she was arrested in June 1945 by NKVD 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 Stanisà Âaw Woà Âonciej "Konus", a subordinate of Zygmunt Szendzielarz, "à Âupaszko", who were operating in the area. "Konus" took the freed prisoners to "à Âupaszko"'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 Pà Âucià Âski, "Mà Âcisà Âaw". For a short period, her superior was also lieutenant Leon Beynar "Nowina", deputy of "à Âupaszko", later known as "Paweà  Jasienica" - a notable Polish historian and writer. During this time Danuta assumed the pseudonym "Inka".
The "à Âupaszko" brigade was dissolved in September 1945 and Danuta went back to work in the forest inspectorate in Mià Âomà Âyn 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 Zdzisà Âaw Badocha "à »elazny", the commander of one of à Âupaszko's squadrons. After "à »elazny"'s death, the new commander, second lieutenant Olgierd Christa "Leszek", ordered Danuta to travel to Gdaà Âsk in order to collect medical supplies.
She was arrested by the UB again on 20 July 1946 in Gdaà Âsk. While in prison she was tortured and beaten but refused to disclose 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 Gdaà Âsk, , vel Jozef Gawerski, vel Jozef Bukar.
In 1968, Bik, vel Bukar emigrated to Sweden, claiming antisemitic persecution. 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 Sià Ây Demokratyczne) and Polish Secret Army (pol. Polska Armia Tajna) whom he was beating and torturing in order to extract confessions".
She was charged with taking an active, violent part in an attack on functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security (Polish secret police) and the Milicja Obywatelska near the village Podjazy as part of the à Âupaszko unit, despite the fact that she was only a medic. She was accused of shooting at 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 others denied it altogether. One, named Mieczysà Âaw Mazur, testified that Siedzikówna had given him first aid after he was wounded by other partisans. She was charged with killing wounded policemen, a charge contradicted during her trial. The court decided she had not played a direct part in the attack.
Despite this and Siedzikówna's age (17), 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 Siedzikówna's public defender, which the prisoner herself refused to sign). Siedzikówna was executed (along with Feliks Selmanowicz, whose nom de guerre was "Zagoà Âczyk"), six days before her 18th birthday, on 28 August 1946, in a Gdaà Âsk prison.
Days before the execution a secret letter from Inka was smuggled out of the prison, where she wrote: "Please tell my grandmother, that I have acted right."
The last minutes of her life are known from the testimony of Father Marian Prusak, the priest-chaplain called to give "Inka" and "Zagoà Âczyk" the last rites. According to Father Prusak, both prisoners were calm before their execution. Siedzikówna, after taking the Sacrament of Penance, asked the priest 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 prisoners simultaneously shouted (in Polish) "Long Live Poland!" She remained alive and the coup de grâce was delivered by Franciszek Sawicki (other members of the firing squad refused to do so) after she yelled "Long live à Âupaszko!"
Her Protocol of Execution was signed by: Major Wiktor Suchacki (prosecutor), 2nd Lt. Franciszek Sawicki (firing squad leader), Captain Mieczysà Âaw Rutkowski (attending physician), and Jan Wójcik (jail warden). The location of her remains remained unknown until 2014. They were discovered due to a nation-wide programme launched by the Institute of National Remembrance in 2003. The remains were confirmed as Siedzikówna's via DNA testing in 2015. On 28 August 2016, a state burial attended by President Andrzej Duda, was held in Gdaà Âsk at the Garrison Cemetery for Siedzikówna and one of her companions.
Father Prusak did deliver the news of Siedzikówna's death to her family, although they had already found out through other sources. Unknown to him, he was under UB surveillance, and in 1949 was charged with "espionage" for informing Danuta's family about her death. For that alone, he spent three and a half years in prison.
After the fall of communism in Poland, the main Stalinist prosecutor in Danuta's trial who demanded the death penalty, Wacà Âaw Krzyà ¼anowski, was brought up on charges of judicial murder twice (in 1993 and 2001). However, both times he was declared innocent of the charges. (Krzyà ¼anowski argued that he had been only marginally involved with the case.)
On Polish Independence Day (11 November) 2006, President Lech Kaczyà Âski posthumously awarded Danuta Siedzikówna the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, issued a decree appointing Danuta Siedzikówna to the first officer rank posthumously.
In 2017, the National Bank of Poland (NBP) introduced a 10-zloty silver commemorative coin, as part of the "Cursed Soldiers" series, in honour of Danuta Siedzikówna.
Since 2017 Danuta Siedzikówna is included in the Polish national school curriculum as a symbol of anti-communist resistance.
Danuta was the granddaughter of Helena Tymià Âska zd. Rzepecka (20.05.1885 Tashkent Uzbekistan - 05.09.1968) and Jan Tymià Âski (21.09.1871 BoÃÂki - 22.03.1940) and Aniela Siedzik zd. Kiejno (1872-1951) and Pawel Siedzik (11.11.1861 - 20.07.1912). One of the grandmothers is referred to by the well-known phrase âÂÂTell my grandmother, that I behaved as I shouldâÂÂ. Danuta came from a Polish family with significant historical and cultural ties. She was the sister of Wiesà Âawa Korzeà Â, the niece of Brunon Tymià Âski - the technical director of the factory in Eà Âk awarded the KnightâÂÂs Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (15.04.1924 - 21.06.2020) and the cousin of Paweà  Hur and Wiesà Âaw Grzebisz (14.04.1933-09.02.2023) - the director of a factory PZL in Wrocà Âaw, awarded the KnightâÂÂs Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta; and the great-aunt of dr. Anna Tertel, an architect, urbanist, and artist.
⢠Albina Mali