Born on April 7, 1927, in Warsaw, Traczyk-Stawska joined the underground resistance during World War II as a teenager.
In 1942, she became involved with the Gray Ranks, the clandestine Polish scouting organization, painting resistance symbols on walls and distributing underground leaflets.
Her duties also included delivering death sentences issued by the Polish underground to collaborators and informers, a task that required direct contact with the recipients and carried significant personal risk.
During the Warsaw Uprising, she served as a courier and fighter in a unit protecting military publishing facilities.
She took part in combat in central Warsaw, including areas around Marszałkowska, Bracka and Chmielna streets, as well as in the city's Powiśle district. She was also involved in heavy fighting around the Holy Cross Church and a police headquarters.
Wounded in mid-September 1944, she continued to fight until the uprising’s capitulation. She spent the final months of the war in German captivity.
After the war, she continued her education abroad, studying in Italy and later in Palestine before returning to Poland in 1947.
She went on to study psychology at the University of Warsaw and worked as a teacher in special education schools for many years.
In the decades that followed, Traczyk-Stawska became actively involved in preserving the memory of fallen insurgents. She co-initiated the establishment of a national day of remembrance for civilian victims of the uprising, observed on October 2, and supported the creation of a memorial space in Warsaw’s Insurgents Park.
She also remained engaged in public life, supporting the Solidarity movement during martial law in the 1980s and later speaking out on social and political issues.
In recent years, she has advocated for democracy, women’s rights and reconciliation between Poland and Germany.
At commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, she called for Polish-German reconciliation, saying it was especially important in the face of current security threats.
"Let us forgive one another, as neighbours do. Together we have the strength to stop Russia," she said.
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Source: IAR, PAP, dzieje.pl