Halina Krahelska

In memoriam of Z.L. (Zofia Lipińska) 

There are map files left after you, 
Cut with stubborn labour, 
Today I see you at work, 
Dark hair twisted above the forehead, 
In the vicinity of the bulb, the eyes are full of shine, 
The joy of the moment that they finally win something 
And your childish smile. 

Such were her moments of respite, 
In the tired, sleepy evening hours, 
In the fading noise, mundane concern, 
Bending over a straight, carved stand, 
You were looking on the maps for Poland. 

The rivers' lines, the cities' points 
Loomed, in different positions, sections, fronts. 
From them, you read unknown secrets - 
How far it was to your home. 

Your faithful unbroken heart, 
From Norway's snows to Africa, 
Did not stand in its persistent course. 

Behind Her holy, unblemished shadow, 
You were in Narvik, in Monte Casino, 
Where our gloomy glory drenched with blood, 
Sprout Poland's immortal red poppies signs, 
Words came true, Young, laughing boys, died. 

I see you lost in thoughts, 
In the evening sitting here, 
Bending over the map, 
In rumination, you were with them. 

Your brave heart, among bullets, 
Ran after Poland's youth over there. 
And saw the white summer roses, 
That blossomed on Jasiek's grave, 
In scarlet was their dark blood. 
You were just looking at the map. 

When I think about it today, 
My throat is clutched by such a vast regret. 
You will never again search the map to say: 
"The Battle of Aachen is underway." 

Ravensbrück, 1945

The following is posthumous memoir written by a colleague of Zofia Lipińska, Mieczysław Jarosz. He recollects Zofia's courage and sacrifice in the fight against the German occupiers.

Zofia Lipińska née Szulc was a Warsaw attorney. Her colleagues recollect Zofia’s courage and sacrifice in the fight against the German occupiers. During the siege of Warsaw, she was in the City Hall among the closest associates of the heroic president Starzyński. After the Germans entered Warsaw, she started working with enthusiasm in the underground organization and persisted in the fight against the occupant until the last day of her life.
Unfortunately, in 1941, she was on Wiejska Street during the raid. Gestapo arrested her and was unable to get rid of the incriminating evidence. They found the material for the “Information Bulletin” prepared for printing. By cruel tortures, Gestapo tried to obtain information about the closest associates of the “Bulletin.” She did not betray anyone during the investigation. German authorities sentenced her to death.”
From the Pawiak prison, Zofia was sent to Ravensbruck.
Judge Aniela Dokońska was imprisoned in Ravensbriick and stayed with Zofia at various times. She recalls:
“(…) Among the significant images of prisoners from Ravensbriick sketched by Maja Berezowska during her stay in the camp – there is a face with the caption: Zosia Szulcowa (Lipińska). From under the tied behind a percale head kerchief emerge eyes sharpened with want and anxiety, but eyes full of sparks, expressing mental vitality, only seemingly trapped in a worn-out body. That is how I found Zofia Szulcowa in the camp in Ravensbrück in 1944. Cut hair hidden under a handkerchief, a household apron on a tattered dress, fast movements, bustling twenty hours a day on the block of prisoners with tuberculosis and glowing eyes – Here is a picture of the camp incarnation of Zofia Szulcowa, known in the camp under the name: Zofia Lipińska”.
Mieczysław Jarosz continues:
“She doubled and tripled, fulfilling the role of a sick nurse, hostess and steward of the block. She was a guardian, sister, mother of more than one prisoner thrown on a buoy, never to rise again. Using her knowledge of the German language, Lipińska fought for additional portions of food, medicines, soap, a towel, some laundry, warm clothes for the inhabitants of this block – in other words, treasures that other female prisoners were utterly deprived of. The moments between her duties and the tasks she put on herself were devoted to conspiratorial work, covering it and covering up her traces. And in the camp, there was secret teaching, radio, intelligence, and many meetings.
Lipińska, working hard, tried not to think and not remember her sentence. Yet her execution had only been postponed. It was only by some coincidence that her life was extended overnight. It just wasn’t her turn yet. However, there was a death sentence, and Zofia Lipińska knew about it.”
“A few months before my arrival,” Dokońska writes, “Zosia received from the camp headquarters the following note in German:
” im Block bleiben! “. It meant not leaving the camp even for a roll call, as the prisoner could expect to be led to execution at any moment.
It was in the evening. Lipińska awaited her departure before dawn. The execution site, including the execution moment, was known and visible from every place but from a great distance. It was the pinnacle of a mountain with pine trees at the top. Lipińska spent that night with the attorney Stypułkowska-Rabska; neither of them slept. They did not come for her in the morning or the next day. So she returned to her camp work. Several months passed again. I believed that Lipińska had really avoided death and that fate had changed the sentence. Unfortunately! it was not the case.”
Mieczysław Jarosz: on January 5, 1945, more than three years after announcing the death sentence, she was taken to the place of execution and shot.