Krysia Bunker

Bunker "Krysia" was an underground shelter located at Grójecka Street [pl] in Warsaw, where dozens of individuals of Jewish nationality hid during the German occupation.

Bunker "Krysia" was established on the outskirts of Warsaw's Ochota district, on the property located at 81 Grójecka Street,[a] which belonged to the Polish gardener Mieczysław Wolski.

[3] The property included a greenhouse and a two-story house where Mieczysław Wolski lived with his mother Małgorzata, sisters Halina and Wanda,[c] and nephew Janusz Wysocki.

[4] In 1942, with her mother's consent, Halina Wolska brought a Jewish girl named Wiśka[4] (a seamstress by profession) to Grójecka Street.

[4] Since digging and arranging the shelter exceeded the capabilities of the Wolski family alone, several young Jews were hired for the construction, who were secretly smuggled to the "Aryan side" of Warsaw for this purpose.

[14] During his stay in hiding, Ringelblum wrote several works on the fate of Jews in occupied Poland, including a famous essay [pl] on Polish-Jewish relations during World War II.

Each refugee moving into "Krysia" had to deposit 10,000 młynarkis upfront and be prepared to pay regular fees to cover the costs of food and other expenses.

In his essay on Polish-Jewish relations during World War II, Dr. Ringelblum dedicated many warm words to Wolski (in his notes, the gardener is referred to under the pseudonym "Władysław M.").

[3] Wysocki also removed garbage and waste from the hiding place, usually with the help of one of the occupants of "Krysia", a Jewish boy named Szymek.

One of the walls of the shelter was supported by the foundations of the outbuilding at 77 Grójecka Street, where an inactive cosmetics factory belonging to the French company "Piver" was located.

Orna Jagur recalled that the outlet pipe was hidden in dense vegetation for camouflage,[29] while other sources mention that the stove was connected to an unused chimney duct in the adjacent "Piver" building.

According to the account of Małgorzata Wolska, as recounted in Orna Jagur's memoirs, they easily – presumably thanks to a tip from an informant – found the hidden shelter under the greenhouse, where 38 Jews were hiding at the time.

One of the officers' statements also suggests that Janusz Wysocki (referred to as the "gardener's son") was not pulled out of the hideout but, on the contrary, he was to be forced to enter the shelter and convince the Jews that any resistance would be futile.

[42] A report later transmitted by the underground cell from Pawiak contained information that the group brought from the shelter on Grójecka Street consisted of 16 men and 24 women.

[43] Reports prepared by Blue Police officers collaborating with the Polish Underground State indicate that on March 7, among other items, furs, jewelry, and four kilograms of gold were found in "Krysia".

[4][19][42] From the group of "Krysia" residents, only Orna Jagur (Irena Grodzińska) and her husband Józef survived, as they had moved out of the bunker several months before its discovery.

[45] From Jan Grabowski's findings, it appears that the discovery of "Krysia" was part of a large-scale operation aimed at Jewish hideouts on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw, conducted by German security services in the early months of 1944.

[g] "Kommando for Wartime Manhunts" (Kriegsfahndungskommando) – a specialized section within the Polish Criminal Police, subordinate to the occupiers (Polnische Kriminalpolizei), played a crucial role in this operation, tasked with tracking down hidden Jews.

[19][51][52][53] Łakiński (born in 1926)[54] was the son of a pre-war senator [pl], a displaced person from Greater Poland, and at the same time a well-known informant in Ochota.

[55] He was shot dead in front of the gate of the house at 1/3 Pługa Street by members of the Directorate of Underground Resistance liquidation group led by Stanisław Sękowski, alias "Michał", "Rugia".

[19][37][51][52] However, records from the death registry of the parish of St. James [pl] clearly indicate that the informant was killed on February 25, eleven days before the discovery of the hideout.

[60] He also questioned Jan Grabowski's findings that Łakiński was one of the secret collaborators of Balhause's section,[61] suggesting that due to the illegibility of the Polish-Canadian historian's handwriting, he confused him with another person – Kazimierz Lubarski.

[62] Three independent sources, uncovered by American historian Samuel D. Kassow, claimed that the hideout was betrayed to the Germans by Mieczysław Wolski's former girlfriend, seeking revenge for the end of their relationship.

One report even mentioned that the informant was an unnamed officer of the Blue Police, who became suspicious due to the large food purchases made by the Wolski family.

[66] Adrian Sandak's findings, published in 2023 in the journal "Holocaust Studies and Materials", reveal that the perpetrator of the denunciation leading to the detection of "Krysia" was Marian Nowicki – a construction representative residing on Ogrodowa Street in Warsaw.

According to this report, Nowicki was identified as the denunciator by an unidentified individual referred to as "Czarnota," likely an informant of the Home Army within the ranks of the Blue Police or Kriminalpolizei.

On 27 April 1990,[71] on the wall of the residential building at 77 Grójecka Street, which was constructed after the war near the location of the Wolski garden, a commemorative plaque honoring the residents of "Krysia" and their Polish caretakers was solemnly unveiled.

[4] The story of the residents and caretakers of the hiding place at Grójecka Street was depicted in the documentary film titled Krysia (written and directed by Wiktor Skrzynecki, produced in 1990).

On 9 September 2021, at the initiative of the local Association of Ochota Residents [pl],[74] the Warsaw City Council named the neighborhood green space after the Wolski Family, which currently exists in the place where their house and garden were located during the war.