Warsaw Rising Museum

An excellent exhibition "Sosabowski - a Family Divided by War" at the Airborne Museum Hartenstein in 🇳🇱Oosterbeek is open for visitors!

Brigadier General Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski (1892–1967) was born in Stanisławów and deeply connected with Warsaw, where he settled in 1918. He served there for almost the entire interwar period, among other roles as a lecturer at the War College and commander of the 21st Infantry Regiment “Children of Warsaw”, at the head of which he defended the capital in 1939. After the capitulation and his escape from captivity, he became involved in the clandestine Service for Poland’s Victory (SZP). Sent as a courier to Hungary, he never returned to occupied Poland. He joined the Polish Army in France, and after its evacuation to Scotland, he organised Polish units there, including the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, created with the intention of supporting an uprising in the homeland. He hoped to return to Poland with his soldiers by “the shortest route” – through the air – to take part in the fighting for Warsaw. By decision of his superiors, in September 1944 the brigade was dropped into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market-Garden.

His son, Stanisław Janusz Sosabowski nom de guerre Stasinek (1917–2000), took part in the Warsaw Rising. A doctor, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw, passing some exams clandestinely during the German occupation. As an officer of the Home Army’s Directorate of Diversion (Kedyw), “Stasinek” participated in numerous spectacular actions against the Germans. He commanded the ‘A Disposition Unit’ of Kedyw in the Warsaw District and led it during the fighting for the capital in 1944. On 4 August he suffered severe facial wounds and lost sight in his right eye (he had already lost sight in his left eye in a childhood accident). As a result, he became completely blind and was taken to St. Lazarus Hospital in Wola. His wife Krystyna managed to lead him out at the last moment, saving him from the massacre of the hospital staff. He was then transported to the Old Town and stayed at the insurgent hospital “Pod Krzywą Latarnią” at 25 Podwale Street. When the Old Town was falling, his wife guided him through the sewers to the City Centre (Śródmieście). He left the city with civilians. After the war, with his father’s help, he reached Great Britain, where he worked as a doctor. After his death, he was laid to rest beside his father in the family grave at the Military Cemetery in Powązki, Warsaw.

Congratulations to Prof. Hal Sosabowski and the Airborne Museum Hartenstein, as well as all involved, for presenting the story of the amazing Sosabowski Family to a greater audience!

📍 https://airbornemuseum.nl/ontdek/tentoonstellingen/sosabowski

More: https://1944.pl/en/article/exhibits-from-the-warsaw-rising-museum-at-the-ex,5756.html

Photos: Justyna Grochowska // Warsaw Rising Museum

Among the girls liberated in 1945 from the Oberlangen camp was Jadwiga Gońska "Oleńka" who secured for posterity a diary of a soldier who had perished in Warsaw.

She put down some of her poems as well there...

"In a destroyed city – the dead
Sleep tight in peace together.
The city was turned into cemetery
Eternal peace covers its memory.

Though, we are troubled and ask
Here in the camp so afar:
Who will place on your graves lights
When All Souls’ Day comes?"

L**h Kaczyński was the Founder of the Warsaw Rising Museum.

Today marks the 16th anniversary of his death in the 2010 Smoleńsk plane crash 🕯

“The world remained indifferent when Warsaw was being annihilated in 1944 but Warsaw rose like a phoenix from ashes. We shall never forget its courageous inhabitants – soldiers and civilians”.
His legacy lives on 🙏