back...Today marks the 78th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising

Subtitle: In connection with today’s anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Rising, we recall the stories of children – prisoners of the camp on Przemysłowa Street, whose dramatic turns of fate coincided in various ways with the fate of the fighting capital.

Adam Piotr Dzięgielewski, born June 15, 1930 in Włocławek. According to his memoirs, he was arrested in December 1942 in Warsaw for distributing underground newspapers. In the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt he was forced to perform the hardest and physically demanding works i.a. related to hardening and compacting of the camp ground. He made an unsuccessful attempt to escape, for which he was subjected to severe punishment. He contracted typhoid fever in 1943 or 1944 and also suffered from meningitis. When he was moved to one of the hospitals in Łódź, the hospital staff were said to enable him to escape and return to Warsaw. He recalled that during the Warsaw Uprising he served as a runner and was wounded.

Bernard Adamczyk, born on August 7, 1928, in Cracow. Arrested in 1942, he was eventually sent to the German Nazi camp for Polish children in Łódź (Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt) in early 1943. The consequence of the stay in the camp was a significant deterioration in his health (he got sick i.a. with typhoid fever and suffered from frostbite and trachoma). Bernard’s brother was killed in the Warsaw Rising.

Jan Krakowski, born August 18, 1927, in Przasnysz. He was arrested in early 1943 in Cracow and after about two months imprisoned in the camp on Przemysłowa Street. In the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager, he contracted typhoid fever, trachoma, and suffered from sores and ulcers on his body. He was said to weigh just 29 kilograms when he left the camp in July 1944. He ended up in Warsaw, with his mother, and then in Chrzanów, near Warsaw, where he was again captured by the Germans and forced to work such as digging trenches. He arbitrarily abandoned the works, fled and hid until the Germans withdrew.

Zdzisław Zielinski, born July 20, 1932, in Warsaw. He was detained along with his older sister, Zofia (born March 29, 1929, in Warsaw). The children were captured during a street roundup in 1943. They were eventually incarcerated in the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager Litzmannstadt. In the camp, Zdzisław suffered i.a. from frostbite and trachoma, and was also beaten to unconsciousness. Zofia remained in the camp on Przemysłowa Street until the German crew fled from in January 1945. Zdzisław made his way to Warsaw in 1944, two weeks before the outbreak of the rising, and returned to his family. During the rising, the siblings’ father, Michał, was captured and sent deep into Germany. After the fall of Warsaw, Zdzisław’s mother’s four brothers were also said to be captured and executed: Józef, Feliks, Franciszek and Michał Figiel.