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Background history
This unique bracelet, a memento of Zofia Arcimowicz-Lisowska, is over 70 years old. It was made by a Soviet prisoner-of-war in Stalag 318/VIIIF (344) Lamsdorf in October 1944 to the order from Zofia Arcimowicz, nom de guerre “Zula”, a soldier of the Home Army, female liaison officer in the Warsaw Uprising. After the fall of the Uprising, she found herself in the German captivity. She was brought to Stalag 344 Lamsdorf, and then interned in Stalags IVB Mühlberg and IVA Hohnstein near Dresden. In May 1945, she was freed by American soldiers. The stay in the Wehrmacht-run POW camps, which brought her wartime vicissitudes to the end, was not her only contact with the German war machine. On 7 July 1942, together with her sister Janina, they were arrested and found themselves in the infamous Pawiak Prison. Although, at that time, Zofia Arcimowicz was during her first trimester of pregnancy, she did not avoid being brutally interrogated. Reminiscing about those dramatic moments, she admitted: “[..] They kept asking me about my brother-in-law and my brother. They were beating me, threatening to drive splinters in. I was dead scared of tortures, but luckily this did not happen. I wasn’t afraid of beating though […].” In January 1943, thanks to the efforts of the personnel of the prison hospital, Zofia Arcimowicz was released because of the coming delivery. Her sister was less fortunate: she was sent to the Konzentrationslager Lublin (Concentration Camp). Before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Zofia managed to place her children in safety in Józefów near Warsaw. During the Uprising she helped to set up barricades and later performed the function of a female officer and first-aid nurse of the Group Chrobry II, being part of Lech Żelazny Battalion which was operating in the area of Śródmieście. During fights at 65 Złota Street she was badly wounded. Despite the medical aid she received from Dr. Jerzy Sowiński, nom de guerre “Sowa”, some pieces of the shrapnel remained in her body forever. The Bracelet from Lamsdorf is the so-called POW badge or camp dog tag, which – on the power of orders issued by the German military authorities – was to be obligatorily worn by POWs for the reason of their identification, typically in the form of a pendant on the neck, threaded through with a piece of sackcloth cord. Zofia Arcimowicz wanted her camp dog tag to be a substitute of jewelry which girls remaining in captivity could only dream of. She did not conform to the camp regulations: together with several friends, she ordered her dog tag to be altered by Soviet POWs in return for food which the latter lacked dramatically in the camp.
The bracelet owner’s post-war vicissitudes were far from easy either. She left the military transport heading for London, which Americans organized to transfer the Polish POWs liberated by them on the territory of the Third Reich. She reached Poland via Kłodzko to find the country destroyed by the war and occupation, where The Communist, with the help of the Soviet Army, were consolidating their power. The Home-Army past of liaison officer “Zula” had a considerable impact on the rest of her life. Her nearestones ones recall that she had never complained of her fate despite many and was proud of her participation in the Warsaw Uprising. The Bracelet from Stalag 344 Lamsdorf became a precious relic for her. Following the socioeconomic system transformation in Poland, Zofia Arcimowicz was awarded the Home Army Cross, Warsaw Uprising Cross, Commemorative Badge of “Burza Action”, and also the Badge of Veteran of Fight for Independence. She died in Warsaw in 2000. In March 2003, she was promoted posthumously to the rank of lieutenant female of the Polish Army. Today, the camp dog tag of remnant liaison officer “Zula” makes a unique remnant of Polish women-POWs. It is displayed on the permanent exhibition “The Site of National Remembrance in Łambinowice – the regional, national, European heritage”.
Prepared by: Dorota Musiał
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