Rank #353 in NON FICTION
As a salute to all the many women who fought in World War II, at home, in secret, in the service, we give you this collection of stories of real-life women. Like Agent Peggy Carter, too often their sacrifice and service was...
WWII - SOE Agent, Polish Army in Exile, Cichociemni (Elite Special Operations Paratroops)
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Elżbieta Zawacka
By Lamus Dworski
Elżbieta Zawacka (1909-2009), codename 'Zo', was a Polish university professor, scouting instructor, SOE agent and a freedom fighter during World War II.
During the war she was the only woman in Cichociemni ('Dark and Silent'), elite special-operations paratroops of the Polish Army in Exile, and served as a courier for the Polish Home Army, carrying letters and other documents from the Nazi-occupied Poland to the Polish government in exile and back. In 1944 she fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and after its collapse moved to Kraków, where she continued her underground activities. In 1945 she shortly joined the anti-Communist organization Freedom and Independence (WiN).
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Like numerous other Polish freedom fighters involved in anti-communist war organizations, after the war she was arrested and tortured by Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Ministry of Public Security which was a communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service in the Soviet-controlled postwar Poland). In 1951 she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for 'treason and espionage', but her sentence was shortened and she was released in 1955.
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She was an active member of the World Union of Home Army Soldiers and cooperated with Solidarność in the 1980s.
