Warsaw Uprising veteran Krystyna Kodymowska dies at age 98 in Poland

Passing of Warsaw Uprising veteran

Krystyna Kodymowska, a Home Army liaison and medic known during the Second World War by the nom de guerre Stokrotka, died at the age of 98. The Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression confirmed her death on 18 August 2026. Born Krystyna Rafalska in Bydgoszcz in 1928, she served as a teenage volunteer during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, providing first aid and communications under fire. Throughout her post-war life, she participated in educational initiatives such as the BohaterON campaign, where she spoke about the enduring necessity of individual autonomy.

The most important thing is freedom, so that everyone can think in their own way and do what they want and need to do, not what someone orders them to do.

Wartime resistance and hospital service

Her wartime experience began after German occupation authorities displaced her family from Bydgoszcz in May 1940. The Rafalski family lived temporarily in Ciechanów for several months before relocating to Warsaw, where local residents received the displaced families while sharing a mutual desire for independence. In the capital, Kodymowska attended underground secondary school courses and joined the Szare Szeregi scouting movement in January 1941 as part of the 100th Girls Scout Troop of the Wola Scout District. Her clandestine activities included distributing underground newspapers, preparing food care packages for military personnel held in prisoner-of-war camps, helping injured underground members in hiding, and completing specialized communications training.

When the Warsaw Uprising began on 1 August 1944, the 16-year-old Kodymowska joined the Sanitary Service of the Home Army Warsaw District, designated as the Bakcyl unit. She was stationed at a field hospital located at the intersection of Płocka and Górczewska streets, treating wounded insurgent fighters during the initial days of urban combat. After 63 days of fighting concluded in early October 1944, German forces expelled her from Warsaw alongside the civilian population. She was interned in a transit camp before being deported to perform heavy forced labor.

Post-war career and memory work in Gdynia

Following the end of the war, Kodymowska rebuilt her life in northern Poland. She initially gained employment at the state bank Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego while pursuing higher education, graduating with a law degree in Toruń in 1952. She relocated to Gdynia in 1960, working for decades as a professional legal counsel. Kodymowska remained committed to veteran affairs, serving as an active member of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers and its Gdynia branch. She was also the mother of musician Jędrzej Kodymowski, the frontman of the Gdynia rock band Apteka.

Official tributes and funeral arrangements

Regional and municipal authorities issued public tributes acknowledging Kodymowska's service and wartime recollections. Beata Rutkiewicz, the Pomeranian Voivode, expressed grief over the loss of a veteran of the Polish underground state's largest military operation. Aleksandra Kosiorek, the Mayor of Gdynia, emphasized Kodymowska's continuous commitment to passing personal wisdom and memory to younger generations.

Despite difficult life experiences, she delighted with cheerfulness, nobility, and enormous warmth. She was an eyewitness to history and passionately passed on her wisdom to subsequent generations.

Funeral proceedings for Kodymowska are scheduled for 25 August 2026 at 11:30. The religious ceremony will begin with a Holy Mass held in the chapel of the Srebrzysko Central Cemetery in the Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz district. Burial proceedings will take place on the cemetery grounds following the chapel service.