Bunker "Krysia" was an underground shelter located at in Warsaw, where dozens of individuals of Jewish nationality hid during the German occupation.
Krysia was the largest and longest-standing Jewish hideout "on the Aryan side" of occupied Warsaw. Among those hiding there was the historian Emanuel Ringelblum with his wife and son. In March 1944, due to the denunciation, the shelter was discovered by Germans and the Blue Police, and the Jews hiding there were murdered. Their fate was shared by the Polish caretakers of the hideout.
Origins Bunker "Krysia" was established on the outskirts of Warsaw's Ochota district, on the property located at 81 Grójecka Street,Some sources give the address as Grójecka 84 (, ). which belonged to the Polish gardener Mieczysław Wolski.In some sources, including prefaces and footnotes to Emanuel Ringelblum's works published in the 1980s, there is incorrect information that the shelter was built on the property belonging to Władysław Marczak and his family ( and ). This mistake resulted from the fact that Ringelblum, when writing about the Wolski family, used the pseudonym "family M.", intending to ensure their safety in case the notes fell into the hands of the Germans. After the war, Adolf Berman incorrectly deciphered this pseudonym, attributing it to the nonexistent Marczak family. Perhaps Berman confused Mieczysław Wolski with – a Warsaw composer and socialist activist who hid several Jews in a hideout on for a period of time and was murdered by the Germans for providing them with assistance (). Wolski's garden covered an area of over one hectare and occupied a closed area bordered by Grójecka, Wolna Wszechnica, and the eastern part of Opaczewska Street (now ). The property included a greenhouse and a two-story house where Mieczysław Wolski lived with his mother Małgorzata, sisters Halina and Wanda,Such information is included in the entry regarding the Wolski family in the Book of the Righteous Among the Nations. , on the other hand, states that the sisters of Mieczysław Wolski, who lived with him in the house at 81 Grójecka Street, were Wanda Wolska, Leokadia Borowiakowa, and Maria Czekajewska (). and nephew Janusz Wysocki.
In 1942, with her mother's consent, Halina Wolska brought a Jewish girl named Wiśka (a seamstress by profession) to Grójecka Street. She hid in the Wolski family home, where she was treated as a member of the family. Presumably, this selfless assistance provided to the poor Jewish girl, as well as Mieczysław's connections with the Polish Socialist Party, led the Jewish Social Self-Help activists to propose to the Wolski family the idea of creating an underground hideout on their property.
After spending nearly a month with the Wolski family, Wiśka moved back to the Warsaw Ghetto, but returned after a few days. A week later, she went back to the ghetto, this time accompanied by Mieczysław Wolski. Two days later, they both returned to Grójecka Street with a plan ready for building the hideout and smuggling refugees. 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. Part of the shelter's equipment was also prepared in the ghetto. Until the shelter was completed, the first group of Jews was hidden by the Wolski family in the basement of their house. The playful name "Krysia", derived from the word kryjówka (hideout), was given to the bunker by its caretakers and residents.
Caretakers and residents of "Krysia"
From 1942 to 1944, ten Jewish families (approximately 40 individuals) hid in the "Krysia" bunker – mostly well-off or from intelligentsia backgrounds. Among the residents of "Krysia" were predominantly young or middle-aged married couples, although there were also elderly individuals, teenagers, and small children. The bunker housed people such as lawyer Tadeusz Klinger, baker Gitter, restaurateur Rawicz, and Dr. Cendrowicz. However, the most famous tenant of "Krysia" was historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who hid there with his wife Judyta and 14-year-old son Uri. During his stay in hiding, Ringelblum wrote several works on the fate of Jews in occupied Poland, including a famous on Polish-Jewish relations during World War II.
The operation to hide Jews in bunker "Krysia" was the largest rescue operation of its kind in occupied Warsaw. As Jan Grabowski points out:This type of bunker in Warsaw in 1944 was a complete rarity. In literature regarding hiding and rescue, there is no other equally substantial hiding place where the residents managed to survive for so long.Contact with Ringelblum and the other members of the group was maintained by Adolf Berman, a representative of the Jewish National Committee. The costs of maintaining the bunker and its occupants were partially covered by the underground Council to Aid Jews (Żegota), and partially from funds deposited by the hiding Jews with the Wolski family. 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. Nevertheless, witnesses emphasized the honesty and reliability of the Wolski family. To avoid suspicion that could arise from buying large quantities of food, they even opened a small grocery store.
The entire Wolski family took care of the bunker and its residents. The "brains" behind the rescue operation was Mieczysław Wolski, whose age is variously reported as 32 or 37. Wolski was responsible for supplying and securing the shelter and maintained contact with the Polish and Jewish resistance movements. 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."). He described him as a man with imagination, good for a drink and a joke, liking risk and gambling just for the sake of it. Ringelblum emphasized that Wolski was heart and soul devoted to his dearest beloved, Mrs. "Krysia". Meanwhile, Orna Jagur recalled that Wolski often visited the bunker, bringing news from the outside world and trying to keep the spirits of its occupants up.
Wolski's nephew, the teenage Janusz WysockiJanusz Wysocki was the son of Stefania Wolska-Wysocka, the seventh child of Małgorzata Wolska and her deceased husband before the war. During the occupation, Stefania Wolska-Wysocka lived in Krynica-Zdrój (). (referred to as "Mr. Mariusz" in Ringelblum's notes), served as a lookout near the hiding place, warning the Jews in hiding if unauthorized persons appeared nearby. In case of danger, he whistled the first bars of a popular song, and later used the same signal to cancel the alert. Upon hearing this warning, the inhabitants of the bunker responded with the command "hide" (kryj się), eventually replaced by the word "Krysia". 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.
Wanda Wolska was in charge of food and other supplies and helped Janusz with disposing of garbage and waste. Halina Wolska handled correspondence and purchasing goods. 65-year-old Małgorzata Wolska (the matriarch of the family) tried to keep the refugees' spirits up and offered them good advice.Ringelblum wrote that Mieczysław Wolski was the brain of "Krysia", Janusz Wysocki its eyes, and Małgorzata Wolska its heart (). She also made efforts to establish contact with their missing or displaced relatives. The other Wolski sisters also became involved in helping the Jews in hiding: Leokadia Borowiakowa, Eugenia Warnocka, and Maria ("Maryna") Czekajewska. Leokadia ran the aforementioned grocery store, while Eugenia assisted Halina with various matters. Maria, a qualified nurse, provided essential medical assistance to the Jews in hiding when needed.
The inhabitants of "Krysia" established a committee among themselves, which took turns guarding the entrance or cleaning. An informal leader of the small community was someone known as "Borowski" (real name unknown), who mainly handled accounting and collected orders for provisions.
Conditions in the bunker The underground hideout was located in a secluded corner of the Wolski garden, under the greenhouse and a small gardening warehouse. It was shielded by a wall from Grójecka Street, which also separated the Wolski property from a small shallow plot at number 79. 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.
"Krysia" had a rectangular shape with dimensions of approximately 7 meters by 5 meters and an area of about 28 square meters. Rows of beds were placed along both walls, which could accommodate 34 people (the remaining four refugees slept on folding camp beds). Between the beds, there was a row of interconnected wooden tables and long benches. Carbide lamps provided lighting. Behind a partition at the left end of the shelter, there was a small stove. The smoke was vented through a hole in the ceiling. Orna Jagur recalled that the outlet pipe was hidden in dense vegetation for camouflage, while other sources mention that the stove was connected to an unused chimney duct in the adjacent "Piver" building. A covered bucket served as a toilet. Even a tap with running water was installed in the shelter.
Compared to other Jewish hideouts in Warsaw, the conditions in "Krysia" could be considered relatively comfortable. However, life in the underground shelter was associated with a number of hardships. It was stuffy and consistently hot, and there was also a bed bug infestation. During the day, the occupants had to maintain absolute silence to avoid attracting the attention of the garden workers. Opening the hatch and letting in fresh air was only possible at night. Only then could the shelter residents also prepare a hot meal or engage in relatively unrestricted conversation. Some breaks in this monotonous existence were provided by small celebrations organized by the Jews and their caretakers on the occasion of "Krysia's" birthday or Christmas.
Staying in constant confinement – in constant danger and in the company of the same small group of people – inevitably led to psychological problems and mutual discord. Orna Jagur recalled that the tense atmosphere was often caused by the conflict-prone nature and authoritarian behavior of "Borowski". During their stay in the shelter, a 13-year-old girl named Basia committed suicide. Her body was secretly buried in the garden.
The hideout was threatened with exposure several times. Once, a Gestapo agent visited the Wolski house, asking if they were hiding Jews. Mieczysław managed to allay his suspicions at that time. Another time, one of the Polish garden workers began digging clay in the place where Basia's grave was located. However, the most dangerous situation occurred when one of the Jews forgot to close the opening in the greenhouse wall. The next day, a chicken entered the greenhouse through this opening, followed by a Polish female worker. She heard human voices coming from underground and consequently started spreading rumors that the Wolski orangery was haunted by ghosts. Wolski then invited a Blue Police officer to the greenhouse under the pretext of picking mushrooms, which temporarily silenced the rumors.
Deconspiration of "Krysia"
Course of events