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Author:
Marcin Witkowski
Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie
ORCID: click here
Abstract
The Last Soldier of the Wadowice District of the Peasant Battalions
The Peasant Battalions were founded in 1940 as a clandestine peasant-based organization defending Polish villages against German terror. One of its members was Bronisława Gajda, a young paramedic, courier, and liaison for the Home Army, who was wounded twice during underground operations. She managed a field hospital in Dąbrówka and carried orders from the command, risking arrest by German forces. When Soviet troops entered in 1945, she was detained by the NKVD but regained her freedom thanks to intervention by the Polish underground. After the war, she revealed herself to the AK Liquidation Commission and lived in Kraków, despite the repression faced by former BCh soldiers. Following the political changes after 1989, she was honored with numerous awards, including the BCh Cross and the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Polish Army, and she passed away in 2024.
Keywords: Bronisława Gajda; Bronisława Peżanowska; Peasant Battalions; German occupation; courier, liaison; sabotage; postwar repression
Pages
258 – 262
Bibliography:
Bataliony Chłopskie armia polskiego państwa podziemnego. Katalog wystawy, red. J. Gmitruk, T. Skoczek, Warszawa 2021
Gmitruk J., Bataliony Chłopskie 1940–1945, „Niepodległość i Pamięć”, 2025, nr 89.
Netography
https://www.ecmentarze.pl/cmentarz/marcyporeba.
https://zielonysztandar.com.pl/2015/09/ruch-ludowy-w-konspiracji-i-jego-zbrojne-ramie-bataliony-chlopskie.