Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, the historian who found their nameless grave in 2014, spoke to Polish Radio’s Halina Ostas.
Halina Ostas: On 28 August, the 70th anniversary of the murder of Polish heroes by communist criminals, the funeral of Danuta Siedzikówna, also known as Inka, a paramedic of the 5th Vilnius brigade of the Polish Home Army, and Feliks Selmanowicz, also known as Zagończyk, the commander of the 2nd company of the 4th Vilnius brigade of the Polish Home Army will be held.
They both died on the same day in 1946, and they were buried next to each other in a nameless grave. The grave was found in autumn 2014 at the garrison cemetery in Gdańsk, by a search team from the Institute of National Remembrance, led by Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, the deputy head of the institute.
How did that happen - that your team conducted such a successful search? Can you describe the process of the finding of the remains of Inka and Zagończyk?
Krzysztof Szwagrzyk: I’m very happy, above all, [that the remains were found]... I wanted to say a few words about the long process of searching for the grave of these heroes. I want to point out that every time before we start an actual search, there is a long process of working in the archives, finding sources. The Gdańsk department of the Institute of National Remembrance was very helpful in this work. A breakthrough came when Waldemar Kowalski of the World War II museum in Gdańsk found a very special document from September 1946.
The head of the prison at Kurkowa street in Gdańsk wrote back [in 1946] to the widow of Feliks Selmanowicz, that her late husband was buried at the cemetery at Giełguda street in Gdańsk in grave number 136. We assumed we must follow this lead. We knew that at the cemetery, there is a sector number 14, where, miraculously saved, there were corpses of three prisoners killed between 1946 and 1947.
The most important for us was the tomb of Lieutenant Adam Dedio, a Navy lieutenant, who was murdered in spring of 1947, and he was buried in grave number 180-something. We needed to try and find a chronology, an order to the burials. We thought we could do it by visiting the cemetery. Unfortunately it turned out that there was no order. The corpses were buried in sector number 14, but they used all kinds of free space.
That was a surprise to us [...] we thought finding Inka and Zagończyk would be practically impossible. We decided to search through all of the free spaces, where there are currently no graves. I want to point out, that sector 14 is currently the place of burial of Polish independence fighters, soldiers of the Home Army, National Armed Forces and other formations, as well as communist-era prisoners. There is little space where there are no graves. We started the search with a ground-penetrating radar. The university doing the search for us sent us the results, which were negative. It showed that there are no remains in the area we were interested in.
Despite those results, we decided to start digging, to be absolutely certain. On the third day of the excavations in Gdańsk, on September 12, 2014, we found a 49-centimetre-deep tomb, where two people were buried next to each other, in boxes, not even coffins. Then, we were almost certain, based on the anthropological data, that it was Inka and Zagończyk. We knew that Inka was the only woman killed by a shot to the head in a prison in the 40s and the 50s [...]
The only woman with a hole in the skull should be Inka. A very young woman, a girl, we should say. Doctor Łukasz Szleszkowski of the forensic medicine department in Wrocław has found she even had a milk tooth. We also had the remains of a young man, which fitted the anthropological description we had of Feliks Selmanowicz.
The analysis of the DNA took a lot of time, but we confirmed that at the cemetery at Giełguda street in Gdańsk, under the lawn and under the pavement at sector number 14, we had found the remains of Feliks Selmanowicz and Danuta Siedzikówna, who were killed on the same day on 28 August, 1946 at the prison in Gdańsk.
We know how they were executed and how they and their murderers behaved before the execution, including from a TV play based on a description by Father [Marian] Prusak, who saw [the execution] and wrote about it. Thanks to his testimony we know today what their last moments looked like.
HO: As you said, Danuta Siedzikówna, and Feliks Selmanowicz are Polish heroes, who gave their life for their country. Usually a funeral is a sad event, but this one will be triumphant in a way, as these Cursed Soldiers [as they are known in Poland], once stripped of their honor, will now be commemorated in a dignified way.
KS: The communist did a lot to destroy their enemies. They did a lot to ascribe certain features and deeds to them, so that society would believe they were criminals. The communist also did a lot to leave no trace of the places where their enemies were buried.
After 70 years we have a situation in Poland when we can finally find our heroes, give them their names back, and bury them with the respect they deserve. I have said this before, and I will keep stubbornly repeating it: we cannot bury our heroes in secret. We need to set an example, and allow all those Poles who would like to take part to participate in the ceremony. I believe that on 28 August in Gdańsk we will meet with thousands of people, a huge crowd of Poles, also those who are coming from abroad. I believe this day will be remembered in Polish history, because we will finally be able to bury our heroes in a dignified way..
Only then can we say that we have fulfilled our duty. Every time someone asks me whether I’m satisfied [...] I respond by saying: not yet. After the prayers after the funeral we will be able to say that the tragic fate of Inka and Zagończyk will be complete. They will be soothed, and I think we will be as well.
HO: Thanks to you and your team, the ceremony in Gdańsk will be possible. Let’s also remind people that thanks to you, Major Zygmunt Szendzielarz, also known as Łupaszka, was found at the Powązki military cemetery at the Łączka area in Warsaw and then buried in a beautiful patriotic manner.
KS: These are the moments we will all remember till the end of our lives. When we learned that the remains that we found in a hole in the ground are the remains of Polish heroes: Łupaszka, Hieronim Dekutowski, also known as Zapora, and many, many more. Those from Łączka, from Gdańsk, Rzeszów, Boruty, Stare Grodkowo and all the other places where we work.
I know that the moment when we found Inka is a very important date for all those who are interested in Polish history. But next to this date we need to mention several others, when her friends from her brigade, her commanders, were found. A brigade that was murdered, really. If we wanted to make a list of the soldiers of the 5th Vilnius brigade of the Home Army, it would be a long list of people killed in prisons and buried all over Poland. Today we are trying to find them to give them a proper burial, but I believe they are somewhere there already standing next to each other, like in the photos that we can see in the archives.