Polish Red Cross in the Warsaw Uprising

From the first days of the Uprising, volunteers of the Polish Red Cross conducted patrol work on the streets of Warsaw. They searched for the wounded who could be transferred to hospitals or the nearest dressing station. According to international law, the Polish Red Cross was also obliged to maintain an archive of missing persons. The association's mission was complicated. On August 2, 1944, SS troops burned down the building of the Polish Red Cross Headquarters at 19 Smolna Street. Everything was destroyed, including 1.5 million items from the Information Bureau (BINF) card index. Employees of the Polish Red Cross had to search for a new location. The loss of the headquarters in the center led to decentralization: branches of the Polish Red Cross were established in various districts of fighting Warsaw.

During the first 10 days of the Uprising, several PCK hospitals were active, including the hospital at 6 Smolna Street (the building still exists today), 2 Jaworzyńska Street, 7 Foksal Street, 55 Mokotowska Street, and 8 Drewniana Street. There were 28 sanitary stations operating throughout the city. A legendary story came from the difficult days of fierce battles for the PAST building. A fighter with a baby in his arms ran out of the burning building. He ran up to a Polish Red Cross nurse. When she asked what personal details the doctor should put on the “milk prescription,” the fighter replied: “Let her be named Wiktoria, surname Ak.” The child was placed in a house on Pierackiego Street. Wiktoria was the youngest patient during the Uprising whom the Polish Red Cross helped.

Despite the visible overhead markings with the Red Cross emblems, Warsaw hospitals were the target of air raids. On September 6, 1944, the hospital at 3/5 Pierackiego Street (currently 3/5 Foksal) was bombed. In the rescue operation, the lives of 120 wounded were saved, but only those who were on the ground floor and the first floor. More than 80 wounded from higher floors could not be helped. The bombings also destroyed the neighboring hospital at number 10; fortunately, all floors were evacuated here. The assistance of the Polish Red Cross, it is worth emphasizing, was directed at civilians and wounded AK soldiers (eliminated from the fight), but Germans and Russians were also under the medical care of PCK. According to the principles of the Red Cross Movement, as a neutral organization, we help all suffering who do not fight: civilians, the wounded, prisoners, families of the dead and missing.

In September 1944, the working conditions for nurses, including PCK sisters, were very difficult. Risking their lives and health – under the sign of the Red Cross – they bravely provided assistance on the streets of Warsaw. Transporting an injured insurgent on a stretcher from the corner of Nowogrodzka and Krucza to Jaworzyńska Street to the PCK hospital took 15 hours in the second half of September. Under normal conditions, this route can be covered in 15 minutes. The wounded soldier was an eighteen-year-old AK soldier fighting in the Old Town. Polish Red Cross volunteers found him thanks to information from his mother. He lay unconscious in one of the basements on Nowogrodzka Street (corner of Krucza). Doctors determined in the hospital that his condition was hopeless. And yet this young man survived. There were more wounded whose lives were saved by the Red Cross. At the same time, we lost many PCK employees and volunteers in August and September 1944.

Today, 79 years after those events, we do everything in our power to remember and continue to help. We take care of the graves of our deceased colleagues from the Polish Red Cross, including those who survived the Uprising. Some of them also worked in the organization after the war. Since 2014, the Mazovian Branch of the Polish Red Cross has been running the Volunteer Care Unit OKO, which cares for Warsaw Insurgents. The volunteers and caregivers of OKO are students from Warsaw universities, as well as PCK sisters and brothers. Anyone can become a volunteer. Assistance primarily involves everyday matters: shopping, conversation, serving tea, or facilitating contact with doctors. Several dozen people work in the Corps. Under the care of the Polish Red Cross are, among others, Mr. Zbigniew Rylski ps. Brzoza and Mr. Tadeusz Studniarski, ps. Łoś. The day of August 1 and the joint commemoration of the hour “W” is an important moment for us.