Warsaw Uprising soldier and activist Wanda Traczyk-Stawska dies at 99

Wartime service and resistance

Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, born in Warsaw in April 1927 (recorded as either 4 April or 7 April), joined the Polish anti-Nazi underground in 1942 as a member of the Szare Szeregi. In her youth on Dolna Street and at local schools in Bródno and Mokotów, she joined the 42nd Scout Troop before engaging in wartime small sabotage and delivering warning letters to informants under Operation N. Operating under the noms de guerre Atma and Pączek, she served during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as a courier and gunner in the protective units of the Military Publishing and Graphic Works (BIP KG AK) with the rank of corporal (plutonowy). She fought through the Powiśle and Śródmieście Południowe districts, appearing in insurgent newsreels firing a clandestine Błyskawica submachine gun. Combat on Smolna Street left her severely wounded on 6 September 1944, and following the fall of the uprising, German forces interned her in prisoner-of-war camps.

Postwar education and social advocacy

After the end of the Second World War, Traczyk-Stawska completed psychology studies at the University of Warsaw and dedicated her professional life to special education. She worked until the late 1970s as a teacher for children with disabilities in specialized schools across the capital. Alongside her teaching career, she led the Social Committee for the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery, working systematically to preserve the memory and graves of fallen resistance fighters. In her later decades, she remained an active participant in Polish civic life, speaking publicly on human rights, women's rights, democratic norms, and opposition to hate speech. At the 2022 Freedom of Speech Medal gala, the Grand Press Foundation presented her with a Special Medal, where she urged international military support for Ukraine and delivered an address on democratic values.

The highest value is freedom, not a party and its interests.

Passing and institutional reactions

Member of the European Parliament Michał Szczerba announced that Traczyk-Stawska died in Warsaw late Tuesday night, 18 August 2026, at the age of 99. The municipal government of Warsaw and state officials issued statements recognizing her decades of service as an educator and Honorary Citizen of Warsaw. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski stated that the city had lost a teacher who conveyed courage, dignity, and personal responsibility throughout her life.

Warsaw lost someone exceptional, a hero, a soldier of the Warsaw Uprising, an Honorary Citizen of the City, but above all a teacher who throughout her entire life taught us what matters most: courage, dignity, and responsibility for another person.

Tributes across the Polish government

Cabinet ministers and parliamentary leaders also responded to news of her death on Wednesday morning. Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Cienkowska described Traczyk-Stawska as a figure whose steadfastness defined public understanding of patriotism, while Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz noted her lifelong defense of national sovereignty following the cost of wartime occupation.

Heroes never die. They remain in memory, in history, and in the values they defended with their whole lives.

Senate Marshal Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska noted that Traczyk-Stawska's annual speeches at Warsaw Uprising commemorations carried unmatched resonance across generations. Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński and Special Services Coordinator Tomasz Siemoniak similarly noted her unblemished public record and contributions to postwar Polish society.