80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Interview with Ms Daniela Ogińska ps. “Bee”.

On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, we callback the conversation with the associate of the uprising – Mrs Daniela Ogińska, ps. “Bee”, which was conducted in 2018 by Marta Polkowska – Ogonowska.

What was freedom for a little than 16-year-old girl, 75 years ago erstwhile the Warsaw Uprising broke out?

For us, freedom ended in 1939 and misery began, famine and poverty. In 1943, the communists murdered my father, my parent was left alone with 4 children. It was very hard. erstwhile the Warsaw Uprising broke out, there was joy and euphoria in us, our dream yet came true, we were yet to beat Germans! There were already shots heard behind the Vistula, at first we believed the Russians would aid us. Our commanders believed in success. Young people especially enjoyed it, due to the fact that we were very patrioticly raised in school, in each class there were portraits of Marshal Józef Piłsudski and president Ignacy Mościcki. My school was common, before and after school we prayed. Patriotism grew with us. We were aware and felt that we were fighting for independent Poland.

Life and household during the business were most likely the top value. What was the life of young people who fell in love, started families, had children?

During the war, our youth planet was completely different from the planet of adults, due to the fact that adults were primarily meant to supply household life. But our lives were carefree. We have matured earlier than young people are now. A 13–14-year-old girl had to aid her mom home, cook. During the war, the Germans banned the organization of general schools, we were expected to be workers, only vocational schools could function. In my mediate school, there were lessons on gas cooking. all student brought vegetables and we learned to cook soups, make salads. After school, we took these dishes for our colleagues, while there was hunger. I took the train from Ursus to school in Warsaw. After school, we all gathered at the Main Station, which existed until the Warsaw Uprising, and there were various acquaintances. We had a work to walk, we couldn't sit somewhere in the corners, only everyone was walking along this station. We were 16 years old, all we had to do was look jealous, there was no flirting, like this is happening now, in front of all the people. erstwhile we were on the job, we could not show any sympathy for the another individual because, above all, there was service.

What happened between grown-ups happened outside of us, we didn't pay attention. The business time was so dangerous that everyone was just careful that they didn't get caught and ran off the street as shortly as possible. These were times of very strict morality, as you had already had a girl who was fond of her, you had to be faithful to her! erstwhile the boy grabbed another girl's hand or gave an innocent kiss on the cheek, it was treason. Among the simple people, this morality was highly valued, attaching large importance to marriage. It's completely different from what it is these days, it's all common, people have stopped paying attention to the rules.

The first adorators were in general school, the adorator could carry my briefcase after finishing class. At the crossroads, he gave me his briefcase and went his way, I went mine. And this first sympathy of mine has remained to this day, due to the fact that this “sympathy” frequently calls me – Staś Kielar – my devotee from the general school. My husband met me after the Warsaw Uprising, we were both sworn in in Garłuch, but I only learned that we were both in the same ward after the war. People had to be able to adapt to conditions during the German occupation. They've developed alleged smuggling. Women from Fata and another towns from Warsaw came and sold meat. The chief earringed pigs for quota in peasants. As the pigs grew, the earring took off, killed the animal, and the earring put on the small pig again, which "still grew". And thus Poland did not die of starvation, only erstwhile all 2 weeks we could eat a part of meat.

Many people were amazed by the Warsaw Uprising in Śródmieście, and came from completely different districts, and so the Scout Post Office was created. After the Uprising, the most beautiful moments were erstwhile people found themselves, erstwhile everyone thought that this 1 or that 1 died in battles.

You were a girl scout – the first “I will not betray, I will not spend” oath you made to your father. Is that what the Scouts swear: “I have the sincere want to service God and Poland with all my life, to aid others, to obey Scout law” gave you strength and courage to fight?

My Scout life began in 1942, erstwhile I was 14 years old, at the Hoffman Clementy School – it was a wage for girls, it was located at ul. Zgoda 15. I made a pledge in 1943. Being a girl scout gave me strength and a sense of responsibility. Being a Boy Scout required that we be brave, surviving by moral principles. The values I have received in the Scouts I inactive cherish today. For if a man has specified a moral cleavage given to him, he appreciates it and is faithful to it! I, being in contact with young people, attach very large importance to making these environments non-alcoholic, so that these people have any rules that they will then pass on to younger people.

Before the war and during the occupation, there was 1 scouting – only the Polish Scouting Union, outside of it was only the 21 – Catholic Scouts. In the ZHP there was the Bem Hufiac – they were left-wing, but inactive in the structures of the ZHP and the rules had the same. There was no split. Only after the war did the communist authorities introduce dualism in the Scouts' pledge. In 1949 they liquidated average Boy Scouts, since then it was possible to belong to Scouts only until the age of 14. The Scouting was subordinate to the ZWM (Young Fight Union – ed.) – was an armed arm of the PPR. The secret circles of Malkowski, which became active in this scouting under the communist authorities, later became the ZHR. There were besides Zawisza, Scouting Association and Catholic Scouting and squad 21. All of us who survived the war began to slow find each another and began to make the equivalents of pre-war troops, circles in which we meet all 2 months to this day.

Did you – the Insurgents – full believe that the Polish Army, which together with the russian army stood on the another side of the Vistula River, would come to the aid of the warlords? It must have been a terrible feeling...

Around 1,100 Polish soldiers broke through the Vistula River, but they were not trained to fight in the city, they suffered large losses. besides respective 1000 people came to Warsaw, who got through Bug, reached Kampinoska Forest and thanks to them the alleged Kampinoska Republic was established there. The Germans did not enter the forest due to the fact that they were afraid. The most casualties were among civilians who sought refuge in the basements during raids. The Russians, despite their requests, did not bomb the runways in Okęcie, due to the fact that the aircraft that took off from this airport with fresh bombs, dropped inflamed and devastating bombs on the tenement houses where civilians were hiding. The Russians who stood behind the Vistula did not let even those who flew from Brindisi to land, with drops for Warsaw. So these guys dropped off a biplane, off a height, bags of guns that were destroyed... We knew the Russians were specified bandits...

How you felt after the end of the Uprising and the war. So many young Insurgents, your friends gave their lives, you survived, or you took it as a mission?

I had a wound in my heart that didn't heal until today... That I survived was a privilege. So many people around me didn't survive, I had a friend named Wojtus Michalski who died in Old Town... It was a kind of remorse later... that I was alive and they died. I remember this day, I with my platoon on 1 August in the morning went for one-time dressings from the dropouts, we returned around 13 p.m., then passed by colleagues who had already gone to the collection[1] to Warsaw. There has not yet been an order to rise, only specified “an emergency”. And that's erstwhile I met my Wojtusia, who was my large admirer, and unfortunately he was the 1 who died at the beginning of the Uprising... It's amazing how a nation of rather advanced civilization could unleash specified monstrous acts of cruelty... For all of us who have survived the business and the Rising, these acts of specified ruthless cruelty are a large surprise, due to the fact that I do not know if a average man is capable of specified cruelty. erstwhile Poles took Gestapo from PAST into captivity, no 1 carried out death sentences on prisoners of war – they were directed to defuse Warsaw. Though it was cooking in any very hard...

Immediately after the war, the communists occupied our Homeland for nearly half a century. You couldn't talk about the heroic pull of brave young patriots. How did you and the another insurgents handle this?

I'll answer that question with a story. Just before the end of the war at night from 17 to 18 January 1945, around 2 p.m. we heard a knock on the door. I open the door, and there's a soldier standing in a Polish uniform, I muted... The fire of Germans just ended, and here at the door a Polish soldier. My parent ran in glad that a Polish soldier, asking, "What are you doing here?", and he said that the caterpillar in his tank broke and so came to see if there were any people here. I asked him if he was alone, and he said he had 2 more soldiers with him. So Mom said, "Let him go after them, and he said, "No, due to the fact that they're not Polish soldiers, they're NKVDs dressed in Polish uniforms. This soldier asked me if I had a decent eagle, due to the fact that he had to teardrop off this “tap” (that's what they called the hub eagles − without a crown − Berling's soldiers). And I held the full business with the eagle with the crown my father brought from the army... now my sons resent me for giving it distant and trying to redeem specified an eagle. erstwhile I gave him this eagle, he broke off this “gate”, and my parent and I cried for joy due to the fact that yet free Poland happened in our house! And he abruptly turns to me and says, "Don't be happy, don't be happy." You will see the freedom we bring you... and he was already from the Polish land. It was a informing to me what was coming... Right after the war, I went to college, to a pharmacy, and they came to recruit me for communist student unions. I said no, I said I was in scouting, and that's enough! They left me alone. We tried to rebuild the Boy Scouts, but unfortunately the arrests began due to the fact that the power thought that we were starting a fresh conspiracy and that we had to be very careful.

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of regaining independency by Poland. What are your most crucial reflections on these 100 years and the message, for us and the next generations?

Respect our beloved country! For us, it's specified a lifelong love. How many times have I had the chance to answer the question, What is Poland for me?, I always say: It is my eternal love! No substance what the feuds or quarrels! Poland is simply a beautiful country.

At my place all the time, until November there's a liberating flag. I believe that the people who were raised in what I was 20 years old were filled with patriotism by their educators and teachers. This was never referred to as chauvinism, but patriotism, due to the fact that Poland was a patchwork of so many nationalities that found a place of life in Poland and no 1 was discriminated against due to the fact that it had different beliefs or views. They were all accepted by Poland as by parent and this must be appreciated. I remember erstwhile Warsaw was rebuilt, people with cold and hunger came with a part of dry bread and worked hard to rebuild the capital of their country. What a love for the Homeland!

There are quite a few Polish youth, very patriotic, and it seems only that most do not have patriotic views. And that's not true, due to the fact that I keep seeing people of all ages, people of 30 or 40 years old, but besides people of respective years old, and I always hear only the good of my homeland from them. possibly due to the fact that I'm called the Bridegroom, due to the fact that I'm a Girl Scout, and it inspires respect for me in these people, but I've never truly heard a bad word from young people about Poland. I look to the future of Poland full of hope, there are many patriots who are loyal to their country and they will surely want to act to make Poland stronger and more beautiful. Warsaw is my love! It burned after the Uprising until the end of January 1945. In August 1945, we returned from a monthly scout training outside of Warsaw, erstwhile we entered the city, we saw that grass was increasing on the rubble! It was a sign that life came out of the ruins of the city, we all cried with emotion...

You are very cheerful, smiling, full of life and joy, even though you have seen so much evil and death. We ask for a prescription for our Readers for specified an approach to life.

My message is: good, beauty and truth, these are my slogans that accompany me my full life. due to the fact that I'm so mentally constructed, I can handle all the bad stories in my life and I always get up. And thanks to that, I'm standing for my 2 sons, 5 grandchildren and 8 great-grandsons, unfortunately 2 are in England. I'm in constant contact with them. My life is my household − is subordinate to my sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. My husband died 30 years ago, they're all my life now.

Thank you for talking to me.

Textappeared in the magazine “Friend of the Family”, published by the Centre of Life and Family. The number “Hail Independent!” 3/2018.