The Memorial Chamber at the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery was established following decades of efforts by Wanda Traczyk-Stawska. A soldier in the Home Army and a participant in the Warsaw Uprising, she spent her entire life campaigning to ensure the memory of the civilian victims of the war was preserved. Today, at 168 Wolska Street, there is a place that symbolically brings this long-standing mission to a close.
The 1947 order
The history of the Memorial Chamber began many years before its actual construction. In 1947, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, codenamed ‘Pączek’ and ‘Atma’, attended a mass for the fallen members of the Military Publishing Works Protection Unit. After the service, the commander, Lieutenant Stefan Berent, alias ‘Steb’, instructed her and Andrzej Korycki, alias ‘Sokół’, to locate the burial sites of their fallen comrades. This extremely demanding task remained with her for years to come.
This was the order I received: to find my comrades, to ensure that their names were marked there, but also that the burial site was worthy of their struggle and their deaths.
Wanda’s older brother, Tadeusz Traczyk “Waluś”, a soldier in the Grey Ranks, also died in the Uprising. For years, Traczyk-Stawska searched for the graves of her comrades and for information about the victims. In the 1990s, a committee was established to look after the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery, and in 2004 it was transformed into the Community Committee for the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery. Wanda Traczyk-Stawska became its chairwoman. She fought for the identification of the victims and the restoration of their names. In doing so, she emphasised that the cemetery is primarily the resting place of civilians, whose ashes were mixed with those of the insurgents after the war.
A cemetery containing the ashes of thousands of Warsaw residents
The Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery on Wolska Street was established in 1945. The remains exhumed from many locations across the capital were brought here. In 1945, Romuald Gutt and Alina Scholtz devised a concept for a large park-like cemetery covering an area of approximately 13 hectares. At its centre was to stand a burial mound containing the ashes of the murdered and burnt residents of Warsaw, as well as a mausoleum. The cemetery was officially opened on 29 November 1945. A year later, a grand funeral for the victims of German executions took place here. The ashes of those murdered at Pawiak, along Szucha Avenue and during the Wola Massacre, amongst other places, were laid to rest in 117 coffins. It is estimated that there are approximately 20 tonnes of human ashes beneath the central burial mound. In 1973, a monument entitled ‘The Fallen, the Undefeated 1939–1945’, designed by Gustaw Zemła, was erected there. Today, over 104,000 people are buried in the necropolis, primarily civilian victims of the Warsaw Uprising.
The Memorial Chamber on Wolska Street
A design competition for the Memorial Chamber and the Wall of Remembrance was launched in 2014. Out of 107 entries, the first prize was awarded to the design by the Bujnowski Architekci practice, in collaboration with, amongst others, Maciej Koczocik, Krzysztof Makowski, Martyna Rowicka-Michałowska and Karina Jędrak-Kościesza. The foundation stone was laid in July 2021, whilst the official opening took place on 2 October 2022, on the Day of Remembrance for the Civilian Population of the Warsaw Uprising. The project was funded by the City of Warsaw. The cost of the project amounted to approximately 23 million zlotys.
The austere pavilions were constructed from architectural concrete. The heavy, almost enclosed forms contrast with the light streaming into the interiors. Wanda Traczyk-Stawska wanted the building to resemble a gloomy bunker. The idea was that, upon leaving the Memorial Hall, visitors would feel the beauty of a world without war all the more keenly.
The Memorial Hall and 93,240 name plaques
The most poignant feature of the Memorial Hall is the Wall of Remembrance. It consists of eight modules, seven of which are dedicated to commemorating the victims. They bear 93,240 brass plaques bearing the names of around 62,000 identified individuals. Among them are civilians and soldiers who died during the Uprising or in connection with its outbreak. The list remains open, as further research may yield new information. This is of particular significance in the case of the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery. The surviving register of the buried, covering the years 1945–1957, comprises over 320 pages, whilst the entries for many individuals bear the abbreviation ‘N.N.’ (unknown). The Wall thus restores the first and last names to specific individuals. The main pavilion houses the History Hall, dedicated to the history of the cemetery, and the Hall of Testimonies, featuring Krzysztof Wodiczko’s installation ‘Voices of Memory’. The installation incorporates recordings of eyewitnesses and their relatives. Among those whose voices can be heard are Wanda Traczyk-Stawska and Tadeusz Rolke. The Chamber also houses Gustaw Zemła’s ‘The Reclining Figure’.
A work by Wanda Traczyk-Stawska
Today, the Memorial Chamber is a branch of the Museum of Warsaw, carrying out exhibition, educational and research activities. Its primary focus remains the fate of the capital’s inhabitants and the victims of the German occupation and the Warsaw Uprising. This place therefore differs from a museum focused primarily on military operations. Here, the focus is on the individual – their name, their fate and the memory of their death. Seventy-five years passed between Stefan Berent’s order in 1947 and the opening of the Memorial Chamber. Throughout this time, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska consistently campaigned for the identification of the fallen and for the dignified commemoration of civilian victims. She herself never liked the term ‘heroine’. She used to say that the greatest heroes were the residents of Warsaw.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska – a Polish heroine
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was born on 7 April 1927 in Warsaw. The war robbed her of her youth, her friends and her elder brother Tadeusz, who was killed during the Warsaw Uprising. She was just 12 years old when, as a Girl Guide, she helped the wounded during the defence of the city in 1939. She later became involved in the activities of the Grey Ranks and the Home Army. During the Warsaw Uprising, she served as a riflewoman and liaison officer in the ‘Kedyw’ battalion, under the pseudonym ‘Pączek’. She fought in Wola and the Old Town, and after the surrender she was taken prisoner by the Germans. After the war, she graduated in psychology from the University of Warsaw and worked for many years with children with disabilities. At the same time, for many years she searched for information about the fallen, tended their graves and fought to restore the names of nameless victims. This mission led her to the Warsaw Insurgents’ Cemetery and the establishment of the Chamber of Remembrance.
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska died on 18 August 2026 at the age of 99. Her funeral will take place on 31 August 2026. At 1.30 pm, a Mass will be celebrated at the Basilica of the Holy Cross on Krakowskie Przedmieście, and at around 3.30 pm, she will be laid to rest in the family grave at the Evangelical-Augsburg Cemetery on Młynarska Street.
The Memorial Room on Wolska Street will remain the most significant physical testament to the many years of service of this distinguished Home Army soldier and participant in the Warsaw Uprising. Although Wanda Traczyk-Stawska did not design the walls or the concrete pavilions, she did, however, campaign for decades to ensure that the memory of the victims was given its own place. Her message remains simple: to remember and to do everything possible to ensure there is never another war.
Source: muzeumwarszawy.pl, izbapamieci.muzeumwarszawy.pl
See also:Architecture in Poland|Squares, Parks | Concrete|Warsaw|History
