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It is with deep sorrow that we are saying farewell to Krystyna Sierpińska, née Myszkowska, participant of the Warsaw Rising, former POW at Stalag 344 Lamsdorf.

Krystyna Sierpińska was born on 28 January 1925 in Waganiec. During the fights for Warsaw she served in the 3rd Company of ‘Grey Ranks’ (the Polish Scouting Association) within Battalion ‘Kiliński’ of the Home Army. She was a liaison officer and a medical orderly. Upon the fall of the Rising, she shared the fate of thousands of soldiers who were taken captive. Passing through the isolation camp in Ożarów, she was later transported to Stalag 344 Lamsdorf, where she was assigned POW number 107183. In consequence of her illness she was admitted to the isolation ward and next, in November 1944, she was transferred to the POW hospital Zeithain, which was a branch of Stalag IV B Mühlberg. It is there that she awaited the end of the war. She returned to Warsaw.

Krystyna Sierpińska was a person known not only from pages on history, but also from literary works. Her vicissitudes were included, among others, in the book under the title Dziewczyny z Powstania [The Girls of the Rising], thus making her known to a broader public. A few years ago we were honoured to get to know Ms Krystyna and record an intervirew with her. This valuable record of historical memory is stored in our collections [available at: https://www.cmjw.pl/swiadkowie-historii/krystyna-sierpinska,17.html]. We shall remember her as an exceptionally modest woman, but proud  at the same time, one who – despite many hard moments and experiences in her life, had managed to preserve placidity and buoyancy and who readily shared them with us and others.