Nurse was heroine of Warsaw Uprising
Marzenna Schejbal, who has died aged 97, was a heroine of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and in later life worked hard for Polish veterans living in Britain.
The Home Army forces of the Warsaw District had been preparing an uprising timed to coincide with the German retreat from Poland and when the Russians reached the eastern outskirts of the city on July 29, 1944, Polish Resistance commanders decided to launch the uprising on Aug. 1.
Initially, the Poles established control over most of central Warsaw, but the Soviets ignored Polish attempts to make radio contact with them and did not advance beyond the city limits. The Home Army met brutal resistance and, with no Soviet aid, the western Allies dropped munitions and supplies to the beleaguered Poles, who fought with gallantry for 63 days.
Schejbal was a liaison officer and nurse in the 3rd Company, “Wkra,” of the Lukasinski Battalion in the Home Army. When the Old Town fell, the command was given to evacuate the wounded through the sewers to the centre of the city. She and her sister Ewa entered the sewers to assist, and eventually reached the Srodmiescie district. Some of their colleagues, among them their mother, were unable to join them.
With the fall of the city, the two sisters were taken prisoner, eventually arriving in January 1945 at Oberlangen, a camp holding female participants in the Warsaw Uprising.
On April 12, to the prisoners’ surprise, a unit of soldiers smashed through the gates and entered the camp. Their delight was even greater when they realized that their liberators were men of the Polish 1st Armoured Division under General Stanislaw Maczek.
“We lined up pretty quickly and efficiently, some of us wearing forage caps and uniforms others in various assortments of clothes, but we stood still and as upright as strings of the violin,” Schejbal recalled. “The drill command followed — ‘Attention’ — and (camp commandant Jagna) Milewska said to Colonel Koszutski: ‘I report to you, colonel, 1,726 female soldiers of the Polish Home Army.’ The white and red flag was unfolded before our eyes and put high on the mast ... tears of joy, pride and hope were running down our faces.”
She was born Maria Karczewski on Oct. 10, 1924, in Wloclawek. After the war, she emigrated to England with her mother and sister.
Her husband, Witold Schejbal, predeceased her and she is survived by a son and daughter.
She died in London on Dec. 24, 2021.