Maria Irena Mileska

Mileska passed her final exams in May 1927 and graduated from the Queen Wanda State Girls' High School in Kraków.

In 1933, she married the lawyer Witold Mileski,[2] but in January 1940, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and disappeared, apparently murdered.

She organized and taught secret classes at the J. Popielewska and J. Roszkowska Gymnasium and the J. Statkowska Commercial High School.

Initially, she took command informally of the women imprisoned with her but later, with the approval of the German officers overseeing the camp, she took on that role in an official capacity.

At the same time, as a volunteer assistant to geographer Stanisław Leszczycki, she helped organize the Department of Anthropogeography at the University of Warsaw.

Her work began with clearing rubble and rebuilding the Czetwertyński-Uruski palace, and then preparing for classes.