August 1944 was approaching. As a Staff officer allowed to know the biggest mysteries, "Bolek" knew very well about the military possibilities of Warsaw insurgent units and political realms. He was certain that the uprising that was to break out soon did not have any chances of success without the support of the upcoming Red Army. On the other hand, knowing the fate of the Home Army units on areas occupied by the Russians and about soldiers of the Home Army units taking part in the liberation of Vilnius, he had no delusions regarding Stalin's intentions.
         Both his wife and daughter memorized a moment of departing before the Uprising. While saying "goodbye" to his family, going for the "W" hour meeting, he shared his worries.
         - The Warsaw Uprising - he said while taking his rucksack on his shoulders, in which there were: reserve clothes, a mess-tin and biscuits - will increase a series of unsuccessful Polish risings, the best Polish youth will bleed to death and only political vultures will be the better for it.
         - So don't go - the broken-hearted wife said. - Stay with us on Praga, you will evade this later somehow.
         - I am a soldier - Wacław replied. - A soldier's duty is to fulfill his orders. Otherwise he is a traitor and a deserter and he deserves to be shot.
         Although such an experienced and knowing the political and military realms officer did not see any special chances for a success of this insurgent impulse, Wacek did not imagine that during these days he could be away from his, often much younger, companions and not supporting them by his experience. He went to fight not because of youth enthusiasm, often naive faith in victory, but due to deeply rooted feeling of duty, feeling of responsibility for his nation, his capital city and for his soldiers. He belonged to the generation of people who would behave "as they would have behaved."
         A "Radosław" unit, whose Chief of Staff was major Wacław Piotr Janaszek "Bolek", consisted of elite Kedyw battalions: "Czata 49", "Broom" ("Miotła"), "Umbrella" ("Parasol"), "Fist" ("Pięść") and "Zośka", a "Topolnicki" company, a fighting diversion unit of women "Discus" ("Dysk") and a Kedyw company "A Collegium" ("Kolegium A") At the Uprising's beginning there were about 2,300 soldiers in the Group. A Uprising fighting route leading from Wola through the Old Town, a Czerniaków bridge-head, Mokotów and Śródmieście, was outlived by about 230 soldiers. If so, there were about 90 per cent of casualties compared with the initial number.
         On August 1, 1944 at noon in a flat in the Krucza street number 42 in Śródmieście there was a briefing of the "Radosław" unit's command. In the briefing participated the following people: the Unit's Commander-in-chief lieutenant-colonel "Radosław" (Jan Mazurkiewicz), the Chief of Staff major "Bolek" (Wacław Janaszek), the Chief of sanitary authorities major "Skiba" (Cyprian Sadowski),the Chief of Liaison captain "Horodyński" (Wacław Hojna), Brygadier general of "Beard 53" ("Broda 53) captain "Jan" (Jan Kajus Andrzejewski), the Commander of "Umbrella" Battalion captain "Pług" (Adam Borys), the Commander of "Broom" Battalion captain "Niebora" (Władysław Mazurkiewicz), the Commander of a covering party second lieutenant "Tatar" (Franciszek Jurecki), the Commander of the reserve captain "Sawa" (Mieczysław Kurkowski) and the Quartermaster lieutenant "Szczęsny" (Nowosielski). During the briefing the K hour (concentration, Polish Koncentracja) as well as the W hour (outbreak, Polish Wybuch) were given. After some doubts had been established the briefing was finished at 12.25 After that the present people went to their units to give ultimate orders.
         A house in the Okopowa street number 16, flat number 17 was set , after previous reconnaissance, to be a place of the command's assembly before the K hour. At that place rules of communication with the Main Headquarters, concerning Doctor "Przemysława" (Zofia Maternowska) and a liaison officer "Małgorzata" (NN). Lieutenant-colonel "Radosław", major "Bolek", major "Igor", the Chief of Sappers, captain "Horodyński", second lieutenant "Tatar" and a chief of conspirational production and munitions second-lieutenant "Rębisz" (Franciszek Hamankiewicz) reported themselves at 4 p.m. at the place of the unit command's concentration in the Okopowa street number 41, at the corner of the Mireckiego street. The command's place of staying was chosen in such a way that it was situated In the middle of the arrangement of the fighting units and, simultaneously, by the main district artery. A quartermaster department was situated in direct neighborhood, in the Okopowa street number 35.
         According to initial assignations the place of staying of the Main Headquarters of the Home Army during the Uprising was to be in the southern Mokotów (the Chylicka street) due to closeness to both the broadcasting station and the airport. A "Tower" ("Baszta") regiment and "Radosław" unit with about 4,500 soldiers In total, subordinate to the Main Headquarters of the Home Army were located near by. These were the best armed units and, in addition, in case of "Radosław" - inured in fighting. Apart from being protection of the Main Headquarters a strong reserve that could influence the result of fightings in Warsaw.
         In the last moment, on July 29, probably, a decision was made to locate the Main Headquarters with general Bór-Komorowski in a Kamler factory in the Dzielna street and the quartermaster department in a court building in Leszno. Also, the Uprising Commander Colonel "Monter" (Antoni Chruściel) demanded that "Tower" regiment should stay in Mokotów. It caused a need to reorganize liaison and to change tasks for particular units. The Main Headquarters' reserve was divided half to half and, what is more, the "Radosław" unit did not have time to work out new tasks. This had a serious negative influence on the Uprising's course of action. Additional mess was made by concentration ordered by Colonel "Monter" for July 27 and its subsequent annulment. A new disposition given on July 31 at 7 p.m., ordering renewed mobilization and the Uprising's outbreak on August 1 at 5 p.m., was given suddenly, in different conditions and surprised most commanders. In the first phase of the Uprising most units did not reach its personal amount and a part of weapons could not be obtained from conspirational magazines.
         The Group's units were located in a following way:
         "Beard 53" - a Telefunken factory in the Mareckiego street, a Jewish cemetery and a football field of "Skra" team,
         "Umbrella" - an evangelical cemetery, a Calvinist cemetery,
         "Broom" - a crossroads of streets: Wolność and Nowolipie and Wolność - Nowolipki number 92 by the Zielna street vis a vis a building of Tabacco Monopoly,
         "Czata 49" - an evangelical cemetery and a Calvinist cemetery - a chapel and a grave-digger's house; the rest: the reserve in the Karolkowa street opposite the Calvinis cemetery.
         At 5 p.m. "Radosław" units started an offensive to the Okopowa street. The "Zośka" battalion gained barracks in a school building in the St. Kinga street, taking prisoners and gaining a lot of weapons. It also occupied a Pfeifre factory and the Jewish cemetery. Platoons of the battalions "Zośka", "Umbrella" and "Broom", collected on the spot, relieved the Main Headquarters In the Dzielna street, making the Germans retreat. The "Fist" battalion filled the Calvinist cemetery. The "Broom" closed the Okopowa street's outlet, at the cross-roads with the Żytnia street. "Czata" located themselves near by. the "A Collegium" unit gained huge storehouses of food and uniforms In Stawki. A school in the Niska street was captured, from where about 100 Hungarian Jews were set free. At later evening hours major "Bolek" together with "Skała" and with the help of a liaison officer "Jaga" marked out a safe route of communication with the Main Headquarters through roofs, trees and between chimneys. A way straight to the Dzielna street was impossible to go through because of strong firing. During a night "Broom" unit's soldiers conquered the Tabacco Monopoly factory in the Dzielna street. The second company of "Zośka" took a part of a working camp on Gęsiówka between the streets Gęsia and Gliniana together with two guard towers from the side of the Okopowa street.

Bor's inspection of the "Radosław" Group

         On August 2 a few tanks went into the Okopowa street from the side of the Powązkowska street. During a fight "Zośka" soldiers captured two tanks, which were used in the fight on the insurgents' side. An armoured platoon commanded by lieutenant "Brzoza" (Wacław Micuta) was created. There were fierce fights in the whole district. A "Pine" ("Sosna") unit was trying to capture a school at the corner of the Żelazna and Leszno streets. Lieutenant-colonel "Radosław" engaged the "Broom" to co-operation and he sent "Bolek" for arranging this co-operation.

"Panthera" tank gained by "Zośka"

         On August 3 and 4 there were still hard fights. On August 4 at 2 p.m. - an offensive against a strong Police group situated on the area of the Ghetto. The battalions "Broom" and "Zośka", with the aid of Uprising tanks and with the help of the units Gustaw" from the direction of Leszno and the Żelazna street as well as the unit Ostoja" took part from the south. Major "Bolek" controlled the operations. German air-raids were holding him back. This attack was to be resumed at 5 p.m. after making the units of captain Sosna" active by major "Bolek." After initial successes the offensive was not effective, which resulted from the lack of co-operation of the units situated from the direction of Leszno.
         After information about the enemy's digging passage through a western part of Wola, an urgent thing was to purify the Ghetto of the Germans. The "Radosław" Group was hard hit. A Karol and Maria field hospital was crowded with the wounded. On August 5 from the western side, a huge German offensive started through the streets: Wolska, Górczewska, Żytnia and Długosza. It was stopped, but with many casualties. At 5 p.m. major "Bolek" led a side counter-attack in the direction of the Wolska street, using a part of the following units: "'Fist" "Umbrella", "Czata" and "Zośka". After an initial success the offensive was crushed by huge enemy's fire and after a several-hour-fight the units withdrew for their initial positions. Meanwhile, the "Zośka" battalion, accompanied by the tanks, captured the Gęsiówka camp, setting several hundred of Jewish prisoners free. The Germans who outlived returned to Pawiak. The conquest of Gęsiówka" allowed the "Radosław" Group to communicate with the Old Town.
         The overthrow of Wola started. A fragment of a situation report of major "Bolek" from August 8 at 10 a.m. clearly presents threat of the situation:
         "The enemy staff of the ST. Zofia hospital (at the corner of the streets Żytnia and Żelazna), having it bombe, moved to a building number 103, hoisting a flag with swastika. From 11 p.m. till 4 a.m. our dropping outposts were waiting for some airdrops In vain. At 3 a.m. a northern section performer an action aimed at an armoured enemy train on a district line, the aim of which was to destroy it. The action did not work - we lost six killed people, two submachine guns and two our people were wounded. It was stated that a district line in this section was insured by a constant line of strengthened outposts equipped with machine guns and Ligot field guns. During a night there was silence in this area.
         At 6 a.m. attacks on our barricades started at the corner of the streets Żytnia and Karolkowa as well as the streets Żytnia and Okopowa. Till 9 a.m. four offensives were forced back (3 of which in the Karolkowa street). The enemy lost 14 people. On the Karolkowi street the retreating infantry was making civilians followed them as its shelter. The Calvinist cemetery, occupying a very little area and heavily firing, is not filled with anyone - we are inspecting it by means of observation and patrols The defense of the Evangelical cemetery was based on little fighting groups, working on base of traps. A section's commander keeps the reserve in his hands. At 7.50 five armoured enemy cars were noticed while approaching "Naftusia" on the outer side of the district line in the direction of the Górczewska street. 9 a.m. - the enemy is broadening the point of pressure from the west, that had reached the Evangelical cemetery so far; the enemy started to fill with people the houses deep into the Sołtyka street opposite the Jewish cemetery. Our barricade was under huge fire.
         Ordered observation of the section Wolska-Chłodna did not give any particular effects due to fires and the fact that the Leszno line had been filled with the enemy. We know only thanks to accidental passers-by that some minor enemy elements are going to west. An ordered task of broadening its extent for Leszno and the Wolska street and building a barricade there is unrealizable because of catastrophic state of ammunition. I would have to use half of our ammunition for that, taking it from the first line riflemen. It would threaten with a catastrophe, as in case of the enemy's breaking somewhere I would not have intervention fire reserve at all. To transmit to evacuation enemy movements on this route will make the enemy concentrate its whole effort to break my group, to which I cannot admit at all cost.
         Atmosphere in our units - a general mood is pessimistic, full of disappointment because of lack of means of fight lasting for the eighth day. We are fighting without any help, either from our own quartermaster department or our allies. This situation brings a difficult problem to be solved - what to do with fighting soldiers when the supplies of ammunition would be totally used - and this must happen during next few days.
         Another problem is a matter of civilians who till now were protected by the army, despite hard conditions. I find it shameful that so far nobody from the Government Representation has appeared in the terrain of fights to deal with the people's fate. Soldiers can see that and comment in a proper way. I do not know the situation in the Old Town. However, I claim that from that district an unit of about 200 people, partially armed, came to my terrain (the Gęsia street),commanded by some "Wilnianin", so I can think that atmosphere of uncertainty and depression is being created there. On a protruding outpost, where - due to this or that course of action - I have to be responsible for the fate of thousands of civilians and soldiers, I must be oriented in a general state in the most precise way.(...)"

a report of major "Bolek" from August 8, 1944, 10 a.m.

         On captured areas the Germans were slaughtering civilians, by killing fifty thousand people. Soldiers of the "Radosław" Group, in a constant fight, were being pushed at the direction of Stawki and the Old Town. A battle of the Okopowa street and the cemeteries was being fought. On August 11 the "Broom" battalion suppressed a German offensive by the Parys square and storehouses' gate in Stawki. In a direct battle in a deadly fire of machine guns captain "Niebora" died (a brother of "Radosław") and "Radosław" himself was seriously wounded. The "Broom" battalion lost almost halfo f its personal Mount and many officers were killed. Major "Bolek" took over the command of the "Radosław" Group at 11 o'clock.
         Major "Bolek" reported at 12 o'clock:
         The situation on a northern flank of our section became under control. The terrain of Stawki is in our hands. We are capturing the Szczęśliwa street, the Parys square, the corner of the Okopowa and the Powązkowska streets. A very strong mortar and artillery fire (tanks from the area of Powązki) is directed on the school in the St. Kinga street and the Pfeifer factory; neither attack from the western direction does not work so far. Due to a lot of casualties among officers I'm doing the re-organisation of command. I want to keep the whole area today. A state of lieutenant-colonel Radosław - there is no threat to his life. I am evacuating him to the Jan Boży hospital. The "Broom" commander captain Niebora is dead, as well as two officers. I'm urgently asking for ammunition. We need it for a mortar 81 mm (a German bomber).

Commander of Radosław group
Major "Bolek"

a report of major "Bolek" from August 11, 1944, 7 p.m.

         By making the Germans tied with the fight the units of the "Radosław" Group were retreating in the direction of the Old Town. The Main Headquarters of the Home Army was moved to the Krasiński Palace in the Długa street number 7.

meldunki mjr "Bolka" z 12 sierpnia 1944 r.

         Tired and weak, "Radosław" units were occupying the defense lines of the Old Town from the direction of south-west. After August 13 the Group commanded by major "Bolek" occupied a block of buildings between the streets: Żoliborska, Pokorna, Muranowska, Przebieg and Bonifraterska. 659 soldiers including 56 officers reached the Old Town from Wola. The Group's command was stationed in the Muranowska street initially and then it was moved to the Mławska number 5.
         All the time fierce enemy attacks from the side of Traugutt fort, the Gdańsk Railway Stadion and Stawki were being repelled. On August 14 major "Bolek" threw the reserve to an offensive, making the enemy step back to Stawki, with casualties. There were another casualties in the Group: the killed and the wounded. All the time there lasted a great enemy offensive to the Old Town. On August 15 lieutenant-colonel "Radosław" made a proposal for the promotion of major Wacław Janaszek "Bolek" to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
      

a situational sketch of the "Radosław" Group's position on August 15,1944, made by major "Bolek"

         During the night of August 21 and 22 an offensive in the direction of the Gdański Railway Stadion was realized from two directions: Żoliborz and the Old Town. The aim was to make two fighting city districts connect. The offensive from the side of Żoliborz started about 2.30 a.m. "Żywiciel" units of abort 300 soldiers and about 650 soldiers of the Group of major "Okoń" that went from the Kampinos Forest took part in it. The attack started without necessary synchronization. The insurgents found themselves in deadly fire from the Cytadel and from an armoured train and also from the Traugutt square. The offensive from the Old Town started some time later, at 3 a.m. The companies of the "Zośka"and "Czata" battalions as well as this of lieutenant "Konrad" from the People's Army participated - about 350 people in total. Major "Bolek" was commanding the whole offensive from the side of the Old Town. Having entered a "Polonia" football pitch, the attackers founded themselves In cross-fire from the Traugutt fortress and the Citadel. Moreover, the attackers were hit by side fire from the Legions fortress and from the side of the Ghetto. The units suffered great losses and they retreated in the morning for the initial positions.
         The offensive finished with a total defeat. The insurgents lost about 500 killed or wounded people. The hope for uniting the Old Town and Żoliborz disappeared. One of the defeat's reasons was too quick an attack and inability of the Forest units to fight in a town. Both sided attacks were not conducted synchronically. Communication between Żoliborz and the Old Town fell short of expectations. Radio communication between "Wachnowski" and "Żywiciel" was not direct but through a radio centre of the Main Commander in Stanmoor near London.
         In the meantime the Group's command moved from the Mławska street, where ad stance from the defense line was 60 meters, to the Koźla street number 7. On August 25 about 10 a.m. a heavy mortar's bullet fell on a building where the command was stationed. Major "Bolek" was seriously wounded. This explosion pulled out almost whole his calf. Captain "Sawa" lost his foot. Four liaison officers were also seriously wounded and captain "Horodyński" was shell-shocked. The wounded were transported to a field-hospital in the building of the Main Archive of Old Data in the Długa street number 24, where "Bolek" underwent an operation. At the same time the Old Town was dying out. Suddenly the hospital building was occupied by the Germans. Infernal scenes were visible there because bandits of a Dirlewanger group started to murder other Polish people. Yet, in the hospital wounded SSmen were staying, who, previously looked after by Polish doctors and nurses, stood up for the Polish people. Soon afterwards the hospital was recaptured by the insurgents.
         German units around the Old Town were tightening systematically. The units of the "Radosław" Group were retreating in the direction of the Krasiński square, where a manhole to an evacuation ditch was situated. During the night of August 31 and September 1 a part of the "Zośka" battalion, in battle array went through German positions in the Saski Garden and reached the Polish posts in the area of the Zielona street. The rest of the Group left the Krasiński Square and went to the Nowy Świat near the Warecka street by means of ditches during the night of September 1 and 2. The seriously wounded major "Bolek" and captain "Sawa" were evacuated from the Group. Jewish volunteers who had been set free from Gęsiówka by "Zośka" carried them on stretchers. The wounded did not feel the awfulness of a ditch wander. Both were unconscious and had high fever. They were obtained from the manhole in the Warecka street together with their soldiers.
         The rest of the Group after two days of rest was led to the Czerniaków outpost, to continue their deadly route. Both wounded higher officers were transported to a quite far-away field-hospital in the Drewniana street number 8 in Powiśle that had been organized in a school building. What were the reasons for such an incomprehensible decision? After all, a hospital in the Konopczyńskiego street number 7 was very close. Was it organizational mess or bad will? A commander of liaison officers of the Group, captain "Irma" (Anna Mazurkiewicz) immediately after hearing the news of the two wounded officers' fate, sent a sanitary patrol in the direction of the Drewniana street, with an order to carry them back. Unfortunately, it was too late. A huge German assault were coming to Powiśle whose aim was to detach Śródmieście from the Vistula river. On September 6 and 7 Powiśle gave up. The hospital in the Drewniana street became in the German hands. Lightly wounded people had been evacuated before. Seriously wounded ones had stayed. According to witnesses' reports, a supervising doctor ceased the full hospital's evacuation. His seriously wounded mother was staying there and he was afraid of her state of health during evacuation.
         Wounded insurgents got rid of their arm-bands and helmets and the hospital was reported to the Germans as a civil one. They understood this on the surface but the next day they threw, as if by accident, a grenade on a floor where beds were staying. The hospital staff carried the wounded to a cellar where the people were put in straw mattresses on the floor. A nurse Romana Kurkowska, a captain's "Sawa" wife, was looking after "Bolek" and "Sawa". In the Drewniana street "Bolek" underwent a long operation. His wound was healing well, which was a chance to come back to full health.
         The hospital was kept in uncertainty during the next days, on a nobody's terrain. According to witnesses' reports, in some sense a Wehrmacht soldier, a Silesian man was looking after it. He would bring food and console the patients that the Russians would come soon and set them free. Such state of affairs lasted until September 27. On that day, when Mokotów gave up and the Germans murdered helpless captives in the Dworkowa street, about 2 p.m. ruffians of a fighting SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Reinefarth group dashed into the hospital. Among yells and beating they ordered the staff to leave to a courtyard and stand with their faces to a wall. They ran to the cellars where the wounded were lying. After a while shots met the ear... When the murderers went to the courtyard again, their rifles' barrels were still steaming. While shouting "We will make a crematory here", the criminals ran to a garden nearby the school and shot two nurses in a summer-house. At that time Romana Kurkowska who was still untiringly looking after his husband captain M. Kurkowski and major W. Janaszek, went to the cellar to see what had happened with the wounded. She saw an awful sight. All the wounded were dead. Above each bed-head there were bloody stains. Captain Kurkowski "Sawa", who had been lying closer to an entrance, was murdered first. His head was torn to a mummy because the murderers were shooting from big caliber weapons (after the Warsaw liberation shells of caliber 9 mm were found). Major Wacek Janaszek "Bolek" was ling in the second bed in a row. One of the insurgents probably in a moment of this execution jumped to his feet at the end of his tether and rushed to a passage connecting a hospital room with a small kitchen because his dead body was lying there. Romana Kurkowska was trying to take off his husband's hand token of remembrance which she held dear, a wedding ring and a watch. But a German who appeared in the cellar did not allow her to do that. Among the murdered people there was also a wounded young insurgent from a "Genowefa" company of a 'Gustaw-Harnaś' battalion, Konrad Eryk Lisiecki a.k.a. "Pistol" ("Pistolet"). Next to him his shot mother, Nadzieja Lisiecka, was lying. She was looking after the boy and was desperately trying to stop a bandit.
         After the execution petrol was poured on the dead bodies and they were burnt. The hospital staff was put by the wall where it was waiting for the execution. A moment before this a German officer appeared and he suspended the execution. The saved people were driven together with a group of saved civilians.
         In November 1944, several months after the Uprising downfall, a brother of the boy murdered in the Drewniana street hospital, Jerzy Lisiecki, who was also a soldier of the "Genowefa" company, a.k.a. "Jerzy II", who was lucky to avoid the captivity, reached Warsaw from Pruszków by means of a cart under a pretext of resumption of a Śródmieście workshop appliances.. Having heard from the witnesses about the tragedy he reached the Drewniana street. Carbonized corpses were still lying in the place of the execution. They were hardly distinguishable. He recognized his mother, half-Greek, thanks to her beautiful black hair with a characteristic strip of grey hair that she had had since early youth. Not earlier than in February 1945, after the Warsaw deliberation, the dead bodies of the murdered people were buried in a common improvised grave on the other side of the Drewniana street number 7.
         In May 1945 the killed people's families gathered by the dug hole in the ground. Remains of the dead bodies were taken from this huge cave, in an advanced state of decomposition, and claimed the ones of their close ones by the relatives thanks to recognition of fragments of clothes or teeth. These remains were put into boxes, preparing them to a journey. Two joined bodies both widows recognized as their husbands', "Bolek" and "Sawy". It was probably an explosion of a grenade thrown between bodies poured with petrol that joined them in the last hug. The widows decided that their husbands, life companions, would rest after death in a common tomb.
         When a nightmarish action was finished, a long cart procession set off to the military Powązki cemetery. Some time later one of major's "Bolek" subordinates, scoutmaster captain Andrzej Romocki a.k.a. "Morro" carried by his friends from the "Zośka" battalion started his last journey from near-by Czerniaków...

The Epilogue

         Major of sappers Wacław Janaszek "Bolek" died, not living till the age of 41. He left a 28-year-widow, a 14-year-old daughter (from his first marriage) and a 1,5-year-son. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of sappers in the constant service. For his merits and military virtues he was given the Cross of the Brave three times as well as the Silver Cross (5th class) of the Military Order Virtuti Militari posthumously (number 13005 of an order. 512/BP from October 2, 1944 .). His name appears on a commemorating plate in the St. Antoni Church in the Senatorska street number 31 and on the Memory Wall of the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Maciej, the son of "Bolek unveiled a commemorating plate in a primary school number 41 in the Drewniana street number 8 where the field-hospital was situated during the Uprising.

former

now

commemorating panel

school building on 8 Drewniana str.

         Lieutenant-colonel "Bolek" and major "Sawa" (posthumously promoted) lie in a common tomb in the Military Powązki Cemetery in the battalion' "Broom" cemetery section number 24A.

former

now

a tomb of "Bolek" and Sawa"

Maciej and Mietek - by their fathers' tombs in 1959

         Next to them graves of major Władysława Mazurkiewicz "Niebora", general Jan Mazurkiewicz""Radosława" and captain. Anna Mazurkiewicz "Irma" are situated.

graves of Mazurkiewicz family

         In a distance of a dozen or so meters from their grave there stands a rough obelisk, erected for commemoration of the heroes killed during the occupation and the Warsaw Uprising, having a Virtuti Military Cross on it as well as a moving inscription "Gloria Victis" - "Chwała Zwyciężonym" ("Glory to the Defeated").

former

now

Gloria Victis obelisk

         Two Kedyw of the Main Headquarters of the Home Army commanders, direct superiors of "Bolek" had to share a fate in dark realms of the Polish after-war history.

a photograph of Fieldorf

         General Emil August Fieldorf a.k.a. "Nil", arrested in March 1945 under another name, unrecognized, was transported to a NKWD camp in the middle of Russia where he was staying till the year 1947. Having come back to Poland, he was again arrested by the Safety Office in 1949. He was sentenced to death in a disgraceful trial and on February 24, 1953 he was killed in a Mokotów prison in Warsaw. It not has been established by now where the dead body of general "Nil" had been buried. His good name was restored posthumously in 1957. A symbolic tomb, funded in 1972 by a contemporary Minister of the National Defense general Wojciech Jaruzelski, is to be found in a cemetery section number 14A in the Military Powązki Cemetery.

a tomb of Fieldorf

         General Jan Mazurkiewicz "Radosław" was arrested by the Safety Office on August 1, 1945.

a photograph of Mazurkiewicz

         After a short stay in prison he was released. Then he made an appeal to the Home Army soldiers to come from the underground. On February 1949 he was arrested again. He was staying in a Mokotów prison till the year 1956, from where he was released as a result of amnesty. He was rehabilitated in the year 1957.
         Second-in-command of Kedyw of the Main Headquarters of the Home Army Colonel Franciszek Niepokólczycki a.k.a. "Teodor" was arrested by the Safety Office in October 1946.

a photograph of Niepokólczycki

a trial

         Sentenced to Heath, wchich then was changed into life sentence, he was staying in prison till the year 1956. He was set free as a result of so-called "Thaw" ("Odwilż") in December 1956.
         On October 2, 1979 lieutenant-colonel Wacław Janaszek "Bolek" was posthumously given a Commemorative Order of the "Radosław" Group.

a "Radosław" Group order

         On February 8, 2002, after several dozen years from the moment of the distinction his adult son Maciej officially received from the Combatant Office a Virtuti Military Order awarded to him in the year 1944.

Virtuti Militari diplomas and card

the son is taking his father's VM

         In the year 2004 a former roundabout Babka in Warsaw, situated nearby the Gdański Railway Station, was given a name of the Roundabout of the Soldiers of the Home Army's Group "Radosław". On August 10, 2004, at the time of the sixtieth anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising a long awaited commemorating plate devoted for the "Radosław" soldiers was unveiled by the roundabout. During the solemn Reading of the roll of the dead lieutenant-colonel Wacław Janaszek "Bolek" was also mentioned among the Group's soldiers.

compiled by: Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz
Halina Janaszek-Ivaničkova

         P.S. The fate of the hospital in the Drewniana street number 8, supervised by Doctor Staszewski is mysterious. We only know six names of the victims buried in graves in the Military Powązki. These are: "Bolek", "Sawa", Nadzieja and Konrad Lisiecki and Maria and Irena Grabusińska. The bodies of the other several dozen people, taken during the exhumation in spring 1945, were put in three big coffins and labeled NN (unknown). Now they are in a common tomb in a cemetery section number 22A (next to a grave of K.K. Baczyński) where the Lisiecki and the Grabusiński families are buried.

a grave of the Lisiecki family

         During the several dozen years that passed by since the tragedy in the school in the Drewniana street nobody looking for some trace of their close people turned up. We do not know whether the hospital records with a list of patients were saved or not.
         Maybe someone reading this biography will bring something new to the case.

translated by Monika Ałasa

Copyright © 2007 Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz. All rights reserved.