Anna Smoleńska


Anna Smoleńska,, pseudonym "Hania", Polish student of art history at the University of Warsaw, author of the symbol of Fighting Poland during World War II, girl scout Gray Ranks.

Life

She was the daughter of, professor of chemistry at the Warsaw University of Technology. The Smoleński family lived in the so-called House of Professors, which is part of the building complex of the University of Technology at Koszykowa street 75.
In 1938 she graduated from the Juliusz Słowacki Junior High School in Warsaw, in the 1938/39 academic year she began studying art history at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Warsaw. During the German occupation, she studied at the Municipal Horticultural and Agricultural School at Opaczewska Street in Warsaw. Where secret teaching was conducted in Polish of academic students of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. She completed a conspiracy communications course. Participant of the "Wawer" Minor sabotage. She looked after the families of the arrested and provided them with secret messages from German nazi Pawiak prison. She belonged to "Kuźnica Harcerska".
From the beginning of 1942 she was a liaison at the Propaganda Department of the Current Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the General Headquarters of the Union of Armed Struggle - the Home Army. In 1942 she won the competition of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda for the sign of the Polish Underground State - anchor project - the symbol of Fighting Poland.

Arrest

She was the liaison of Maria Straszewska, the editorial secretary of the "Information Bulletin". The Germans tried to arrest the editor-in-chief of the "Information Bulletin" Aleksander Kamiński and the editorial secretary Maria Straszewska. With no effect. However, on November 3, 1942, the Gestapo arrested Anna Smoleńska, her parents, sister and brother with his wife.

Death at Auschwitz

After being imprisoned in Pawiak prison, she did not give anyone away, despite the heavy investigation. Taken from "Pawiak" on November 26, 1942, to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was given camp number 26008. She died of typhus, and three of her family members were killed in Auschwitz. Her father, after a hard investigation, was shot by the Gestapo in the ruins of the ghetto on May 7, 1943.

Commemoration

In 1998, a commemorative plaque was unveiled, dedicated to the scouts: Anna Smoleńska and Tadeusz Zawadzki. The plaque was placed on the side wall of the "House of Professors" of the Warsaw University of Technology at Koszykowa 75 street in Warsaw.