Irena Iłłakowicz - Polish resistance martyr

Irena Iłłakowicz (July 26, 1906 – October 4, 1943) was a Polish intelligence agent during World War II.

Her parents were living in Berlin when she was born. Poland was still occupied by the Russians, and many Poles (like Marie Curie and her sister) had emigrated to other countries in Europe, looking for better opportunities. During World War I, they left Germany for Finland. After the war was over, Poland had succeeded in gaining its independence, and the family returned to their homeland.

After graduating from high school in Poland, Irena moved to Paris to study humanities. It was there that she met her first husband, Azis Zangehan, the son of an Iranian prince. The couple moved to Persia, where Irena stayed for two years. Sadly, Irena wasn't able to travel to Poland to visit her family and became very homesick. Eventually, her husband helped her secretly travel to Tehran, where she was able to meet with Polish diplomats who, in turn, helped her leave the country and return to Poland.

After spending time in Warsaw, she eventually returned to Paris, where she met her second husband Jerzy Olgierd Iłłakowicz. They married in 1934, and their daughter Ligia was born in 1936. The young family enjoyed a bit of peace while paying attention to the reports coming out of Germany and preparing for the worst.

The worst came in September 1939 when, within 3 weeks, both the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland. In October, both Irena and Jerzy joined the resistance movement. To protect them from arrests by the Gestapo, she assumed a new name -- Barbara Zawisza -- and she and her husband lived in different locations.

Irena was assigned to a branch responsible for conducting military, economic and information reconnaissance. She was the perfect candidate for this type of work as she spoke seven languages: Polish, French, English, Persian, Finnish, German and Russian. She went to Berlin, where she was a part of a small organization spying on the Germans.

Sadly, over several months in 1941 and '42, her network was destroyed by the Germans, with on-going arrests of activist. Irena herself was arrested by the Gestapo on October 7, 1942. They took her to Pawiak, a prison that was being used to interrogate resistance members, and to process Jews and others for removal to concentration camps. Irena was tortured, but refused to give up any info. Her resistance colleagues, hoping to spare her more torture, sent her a vial of cyanide, but she refused to use it.

Her husband managed to bribe a guard to put her in a group of prisoners being transporter the Majdanek concentration camp. While there, a group of Polish resistance fighters were able to rescue her dressed as Gestapo officers with a forged warrant for her to be brought to Warsaw for further interrogation.

Instead of retiring from spywork, she returned to the resistance, this time working to gather intelligence on Soviet plans to send parachuters into Poland. On the night of October 4, 1943, she received a summon for a meeting that seemed too important to miss. She decided she had to go despite her suspicions. Tragically, it was a set up and she was brutally murdered.

Because she was undercover when she was killed, she was buried with her false name, and her husband and mother had to disguise themselves as cemetery workers in order to attend her funeral. It wasn't until after the war that her mother was able to have a plaque with her real name placed on her grave.

In 1944 Irena was posthumously promoted to second Lieutenant for her bravery during the war.

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Malka Zdrojewicz and Individual Acts of Resistance

I've been thinking a lot lately about individual stories that make up historic events. When we learn about these large uprisings or demonstrations, we often only learn about the collective story, without really understanding that its power comes from the synthesis of these thousands of smaller stories. While reading about Claudette Colvin and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, I learned about the different ways individuals participated, each to the extent that they could. Most people walked miles each way to work or school in all kinds of weather. Some banded together to form a community carpool. And still others donated money, food, or childcare to help their neighbors who were busy walking or driving rather than riding the bus.

This morning, I learned that today is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (1943). I know a little about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as a historic even, but I wanted to know about the individuals and how they participated. In my research, I found this photo. At first glance, I was emotionally struck by how defiant these women appear, even as they are also obviously terrified. I wanted to know: Who were they and what was happening?

From left to right, they are: sisters Rachela and Bluma Wyszogrodzki, and Malka Zdrojewicz. This photo was taken by the SS, as these three were arrested for having carried arms (guns and grenades, etc.) into the ghetto. After the war, Malka talked of her experience in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the circumstances behind this photo.

"We went to a neutral place in the ghetto area and climbed down into the underground sewers. Through them, we girls used to carry arms into the ghetto; we hid them in our boots. During the ghetto uprising, we hurled Molotov cocktails at the Germans.

"After the suppression of the uprising, we went into hiding, taking refuge in an underground shelter where a large quantity of arms was piled up. But the Germans detected us and forced us out. I happened to be there with Rachela and Bluma Wyszogrodzka (and that is how they took our picture) ...

"Rachela and I, together with the others, were driven to the Umschlagplatz. They later took us to Majdanek from there."
(source: Institute for Historical Review)

They had good reason to be terrified. By 1943, Jews throughout Europe were well aware of the incredible danger they faced. Everyone in the Warsaw Ghetto had been forcibly moved there -- often after they'd already escaped the Nazis as they passed through rural villages in eastern Poland on their way to the Russian front -- and they knew that it was only a temporary arrangement as the Nazis figured out what to do with them. They'd already seen large groups of their friends and family members taken away to Treblinka and Majdanek, two of the Nazi German Extermination camps in Poland.

When faced with such abject oppression and terror, these three young women (and countless others like them) refused to give up. They found ways to resist even amid the most horrific circumstances.

FYI: Malka was the only one of the three to survive Majdanek.

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Image source: Wikipedia. Image info: Stroop Report original caption: "HeHalutz women captured with weapons." Jewish resistance women, among them Malka Zdrojewicz (right), who survived the Majdanek extermination camp.

You can read more about the women in the Warsaw Ghetto in this excellent World History Connected post.

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