76 years ago, on 28 August 1946, Danuta Siedzikówna, codenamed “Inka”, a medical orderly of the 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army and Feliks Selmanowicz, codenamed "Zagończyk" were sentenced to death by a communist court, executed and buried in an unmarked grave in Gdańsk. Decades later, the IPN's Office of Search and Identification located their remains, and they were given a state burial. Today, both were commemorated at the Military Cemetery in Gdańsk.
Representatives of state authorities, including Karol Rabenda, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of State Assets, MP Michal Urbaniak, Tomasz Gieszcz representing the Pomeranian Voivode, representatives of local authorities, uniformed services, social organizations, cultural institutions (including the Director of the World War II Museum, Grzegorz Berendt Ph.D.), veterans, scouts, and residents of Gdańsk gathered at the graves of the Heroes. The IPN Branch Office in Gdańsk was represented by a delegation headed by Krzysztof Drażba, Head of the Gdańsk National Education Office.
The next part of the ceremony took place at the wall of the Detention Center in Gdańsk. This is where the Heroes spent their last days and it is also here that they were murdered by the communists. The gathered guests paid their respectsand laid flowers under the memorial plaque dedicated to the murdered, which is located on the wall of the Detention Center.
The final, spiritual part of the ceremony, took place in the church of the Salesian priests in Gdańsk's Orunia district. A commemorative homily was delivered by Fr. Jaroslaw Wąsowicz SDB. The Mass was followed by the laying of flowers at the nearby monument to Danuta Siedzikówna "Inka."
***
She was still underage when the communists killed her. “Inka” is now considered a national heroine, a symbol of Polish resistance against the communist regime enforced upon Poland and its crimes committed against Polish freedom fighters. Inka was executed together with Feliks Selmanowicz, “Zagończyk”, a soldier from Łupaszka’s unit. The teenage medic and middle-aged veteran were buried side-by-side in anonymous graves. Almost seventy years later, they were found. Thanks to the IPN’s efforts, their remains have been discovered. The solemn state funeral took place in 2016 on the 70th anniversary of the murder.
Danuta Siedzikówna was a seventeen-year-old girl who should have dated boys, thought about university and worried only about which dress to wear to a party. Instead, she served with people she respected because they fought the power which usurped the right to rule her nation; once caught, the only thing she worried about was whether she'd be strong enough "to do the right thing”. She was.
Read her story "The cursed nurse"
An unknown photo of "Inka" was published in 2020. The picture, taken in mid-July 1946, shows this medical orderly of the Home Army 5th Wilno Brigade in the same dress as she was arrested soon afterwards.