Instead of her wedding night, she faced a heavy interrogation; a Gestapo man put out a cigarette on her leg, her teeth were knocked out. The massacred woman was dragged home by the Gestapo in the morning, they expected her husband to be there waiting for her. They only found Halina's sister, who fainted at the sight of her. The next day the woman was on her way to Pawiak.
Dress ready, invitations out, food supplies for the wedding party made - war brides were looking forward to their wedding day. Unfortunately, sometimes it was the worst day of their lives. Halina Rajewska came to the Gestapo straight from her own wedding party. Both, with her newly married husband, Lech Wittig, were active in the underground in Warsaw, and then in Szczebrzeszyn, where the wedding took place on December 8, 1941. Much to the surprise of the bride and groom, some uninvited guests - the Gestapo men - showed up at the wedding reception.
The Germans found Leszek in Warsaw. While searching the apartment of Halina's brother, also an underground activist, they found an invitation to Lech and Halina's wedding in Szczebrzeszyn. “We had a problem because the priest did not want to register Lech in the name of Kozłowski. Everyone in the area knew him as Jerzy Kozłowski, but the priest insisted and signed us up under real names. And that lost us "- recalls Halina Rajewska, one of the protagonists of Łukasz Modelski's book" Girls of War ".
A lot of guests had fun at the party, over 30 people, including underground activists. They managed to escape because the bride and groom got a warning. Halina's husband also escaped from the house, she stayed to explain to the Germans that it was all a big misunderstanding ...
Unlucky bride
“Four of them came in, all in uniform. They screamed. And here the tables are full, vodka vapors, glasses are still full, warm tea in mugs, plates with meat, as is the case at a wedding, cake, something bitten, cigarette smoke, jackets were hung full, shoes were standing - it was warm at home "- reports Halina Rajewska. The bride was arrested immediately and brutally beaten.
1941, photo taken just before the wedding of Halina and Lech. Photo from the book "War Girls" (Znak Horyzont 2017).
Instead of her wedding night, she faced a heavy interrogation; a Gestapo man put out a cigarette on her leg, her teeth were knocked out. The massacred woman was dragged home by the Gestapo in the morning, they expected her husband to be there waiting for her. They only found Halina's sister, who fainted at the sight of her. The next day, Halina was transported to Lublin, to the Castle, then to Warsaw, first to Szucha, then to Pawiak. There, through a trusted guardian, who was also in the underground, she made contact with her husband. She managed to get a release from prison.
Shortly after leaving Pawiak, she met her husband. Halina spent the rest of the war in Otwock, in a house near the forest where she was hiding a Jewish family. The place of residence was extremely dangerous, not only because of the Jewish tenants, but also because Halina's husband kept weapons from the Polish factory of Błyskawica there. Halina managed to survive the war; her husband also survived.
Wedding-trap
On June 5, 1943, in the church of St. Alexander, 90 people gathered at Plac Trzech Krzyży in Warsaw. Among them, many members of the underground unit code-named "Kosa 30". "Osa-Kosa", as it was said in the underground, was the disposition unit of the main commandant of the Home Army himself, General Stefan Grot-Rowecki. It was a group of soldiers trained before the war, who were assigned special tasks, the so-called wet work - combat operations, execution of sentences against Nazi dignitaries, Gestapo agents and informers. They have had several spectacular feats, such as the Berlin bombings.
The article was based, among others, on the book by Łukasz Modelski entitled "Girls of War" (Znak Horyzont 2017).
A solemn event was brought to the church by soldiers of the deeply secretive detachment - one of them, Lieutenant Mieczysław Uniejewski, pseud. "Sailor", he married Teofilia Suchanek, the daughter of a famous painter. Gathering so many members of the underground in one place was a violation of one of the fundamental principles of the underground. And the consequences of insubordination turned out to be tragic in this case.
Suddenly, the Germans burst into the church, everyone inside was arrested. Escape was out of the question as the building was surrounded. Many people were imprisoned, some were shot. The bride was sent to Auschwitz. She managed to survive the camp and the war. The groom was shot a few months after his arrest.
During the unfortunate wedding ceremony, the Home Army lost an important branch and suffered one of the biggest mishaps in its history. According to the underground leadership, someone had to inform the Germans about the planned wedding. Suspicions fell on Stanisław Jaster, pseudonym "Hel". He was sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried out a month after the tragic events. Years later, however, historians questioned Jaster's guilt.
Death at the wedding
The tragic events took place during a wedding in the village of Godowa at the very end of the war, in April 1945. There were no more Germans in the Subcarpathian settlement, but representatives of the new government hunted down underground activists. In the barn, where the wedding reception of Janina Kiczek and Witold Szaro took place, many guests had fun, including several local Home Army members.
The policemen had no qualms. The wedding in Godowa ended in a tragedy.
It was after them that the policemen came to the barn. First they threw a grenade, then they stormed inside and started shooting at the guests. The young couple survived, but three people died, including a 12-year-old girl. Some managed to hide in the basement, but as many as 30 wedding guests were arrested and taken to the seat of the UB in Rzeszów.
The action of the policemen was a revenge against the local Home Army soldiers for the liquidation of Jan Ziobro, the first secretary of the Polish Workers' Party in nearby Strzyżów. After the wedding guests were arrested, in the morning the policemen returned to the village to detain more people, but the Home Army soldiers, who were not at the unlucky wedding or managed to escape from the barn, lurked along the road and started shooting at the officers. The policemen escaped. Underground activists who were at risk of arrest left for the Recovered Territories.
Bibliography:
- Łukasz Modelski, War girls , Znak publishing house, Kraków 2017.
- Piotr Samolewicz, I will make a film about a shot wedding , "Super novelties", 14/07/2014.
- Tomasz Strzembosz, Assault troops of the underground Warsaw 1939-1944 , Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw