Hanna Stadnik

Stadnik was born on 23 February 1929, in Warsaw, Poland.[1]

Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland, including Warsaw, in 1939. In 1942, Stadnik began working for the Polish underground when she was 13-years old.[2] She received medical training and smuggled documents and weapons across Warsaw from 1942 to 1944.[2]

Hanna Stadnik was just 15-years old at the onset of the Warsaw Uprising, a major revolt led by the Home Army and the Polish resistance to free the city from German occupation, on 1 August 1944.[1] Stadnik joined the Uprising beginning on the first day of the revolt as a member of the Home Army's "Baszta" regiment under the nickname "Hanka".[1][3] She served as a paramedic, liaison, and weapons smuggler during the fighting, mainly in the city's Mokotów district.[1][2] Stadnik and her colleagues were eventually forced to surrender. She was imprisoned in German camps at Dulag 121 and Skierniewice.[1][2]

Following the end of World War II and her release from German imprisonment, Hanna Stadnik completed high school and enrolled at the University of Warsaw.[1][2] However, she was forced to leave the university after two years for concealing her past membership in Home Army and the Warsaw Uprising by Poland's new communist dictatorship.[1][2] Stadnik worked as a social worker during her career while participating in veterans organizations.[1]

Stadnik served as a longtime Vice President of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers (ŚZŻAK), an organization for veterans of the Home Army.[1] In 2020, ŚZŻAK President Leszek Żukowski resigned from the position, effective 18 September 2020.[4] Hanna Stadnik succeeded him as the acting President of ŚZŻAK, a position she held until her death on 1 December 2020.[5]

She remained active in social and political causes until the end of her life.[1] In 2016, Stadnik and her colleagues, including psychologist Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, became vocal public supporters of the nationwide All-Poland Women's Strike.[1] She also publicly criticized Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński for invoking the Warsaw Uprising for political purposes.[3] Most recently, Stadnik took part in the October–December 2020 Polish protests, less than one month before her death, in response to a Constitutional Tribunal ruling which restricted abortion in Poland.[1]

Hanna Stadnik died in Warsaw on 1 December 2020, at the age of 91, from COVID-19.[6][1][2][3] Her death was announced by the Warsaw Uprising Museum.[1]

• Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2015) - Awarded by German President Joachim Gauck[2]
• Cross of Independence (2013) - Awarded by Polish President Bronisław Komorowski[1][2]
• Partisan Cross[1]
• Silver Cross of Merit[1]
• Warsaw Uprising Cross[1]
• Medal for Warsaw[1][3]
• Badge of Distinction - ŚZŻAK[1][3]