News

It is with great sorrow that we have received the news that on 18 August 2026, at the age of 99 years, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, noms de guerre “Pączek” [Doughnut] and “Atma” – soldier of the Home Army, participant of the Warsaw Rising, Prisoner of War in German camps, psychologist, teacher and social activist, a friend to our Museum, passed away.

Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was born on 7 April 1927 in Warsaw. During the Occupation, she was a member of the Grey Ranks, and during the Warsaw Rising, served in the rank of Master Corporal in the Protective Detachment for the Military Publishing Works of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Home Army Headquarters. As a liaison officer and riflewoman she fought in Śródmieście and Powiśle Districts. In September 1944, she got wounded, yet after the capitulation – remained with her detachment. She was awarded the Cross of Valour.

Following the end of the fights, she was moved from the transition camp in Ożarów and transported to Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (Łambinowice), where she arrived on 8 October 1944. She was registered under the POW number 106426, being one of the 1,037 women–participants of the Rising there. She recollected her stay at Lamsdorf through the most prominent experiences: first – as a very exhausting journey in goods wagons, then – the moment of the women entering the camp among the applause of the POWs of various armies, and healing scarlet fever which she had contracted and last – the departure. Next, she stayed successively in the following stalags: IV B/Z Zeithain, IV E Altenburg, and finally in VI C/Z Oberlangen. It was there that on 12 April 1945 she was liberated by soldiers of the 1^st Armoured Division of General Stanisław Maczek. In all of the accounts of her captivity (and not only) it is the people she met that come to the fore.

Before she returned to Poland in 1947, she had been a student of the School for Younger Volunteers in Nazareth (the upcoming volume of our Łambinowice Museum Yearly, which will come out soon, includes an interview with her on this topic). She graduated from the University of Warsaw, majoring in psychology and for many years was working as a teacher of special education. Pedagogy and memory of fallen soldiers and civil victims of World War 2, in particular participants of the Warsaw Rising, were always top of her priority interests and concern. For many years she was striving for a proper commemoration of Warsaw Insurgents. She initiated the establishment of the Memorial Chamber in the Cemetery of Warsaw Insurgents. She was vitally interested in current socio-political problems, not abstaining from publicly voicing her criticism.

Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was connected with our Museum through the memory of captivity of Warsaw Insurgents and education on this issue. She took part in anniversary celebrations, openings of exhibitions dedicated to POWs (the last time in 2022, during the opening of the exhibition called “The end and the beginning. Warsaw Insurgents in German captivity” which was held in the Parliament of the Republic of Poland), as well as in meetings with youth and teachers. She willingly shared her memories, appearing in documentary films (among others, Biżuteria z niewoli [The jewellery from captivity], Mniej znane pożytki z historii... [The less known benefits of history…], Przystanek Lamsdorf [The Lamsdorf stop], Powstańcy warszawscy w niewoli [Warsaw Insurgents in captivity]), in publications and bulletins issued by our Museum. Now, we have lost not only one of the last witnesses of the Warsaw Rising and German captivity, but first of all – our dear Friend, whose loss is irreparable.

Mrs Wanda, thank you for each of our meetings, your genuine testimony, words-signposts, … Thank you for everything!