Barbara Gancarczyk
Honorary Citizen of Warsaw since 20th June 2024.
She passed her matura exam at clandestine classes and then studied with Prof. Stefan Bryła, the dean of the secret Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology and head of the Public Works and Reconstruction Cell of the Government Delegation for Poland. She was his student and also served as the professor's liaison officer. In 1942, she received the rank of rifleman and also became a soldier in the Scout Battalion "Wigry".
The "W" Hour found her at the concentration point of her platoon at Kilińskiego Street. In the following days, she was on duty as a medical orderly at the hospital at Mariańska Street. On 7 August, after returning to the Old Town, she was assigned to the assault company of the "Wigry" Battalion. Together with her unit, she fought in the area of, for example, Świętojańska, Dziekania, Kanonia, Jezuicka, Celna, and Brzozowa streets. During the heavy fighting for the St. John's Cathedral at Świętojańska Street, on 16 August, during the shelling, together with her friend, Teresa Potulicka-Łatyńska pseud. "Michalska", they helped carry the Crucifix in the Chapel of the Miraculous Lord Jesus out of the Baryczka Chapel. In doing so, they saved one of Warsaw's oldest monuments. In the following days of the Uprising, she served as a medical orderly in the Central Surgical Hospital at Długa Street, where she cared for the wounded until the fall of the Old Town. After leaving the Old Town, she went through a camp in Pruszków and was then sent to Wrocław for forced labour, from which she escaped. In early 1945, she set off on foot for Warsaw.
After the war, she completed her architectural studies at the Warsaw University of Technology. Throughout her life, she tirelessly undertook numerous activities to commemorate the Uprising, including: giving interviews and meeting with young people. In 2019, during a visit to the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, she talked to the lecturers and students about the clandestine classes with Prof. Stefana Bryła. A year later, she gave an interview for a film about this famous architect, designer, and long-time member of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic.
In 2020, Barbara Gancarczyk took part in the reintroduction of the Crucifix in the Chapel of the Miraculous Lord Jesus to the Cathedral. She walked through the last station with it and thus symbolically performed the act of bringing the cross into the temple.
Decorated with, among others: Silver Cross of the War Order Virtuti Militari, Cross of Valour, Cross of the Home Army, and Warsaw Uprising Cross.
Title awarded by resolution of the Council of the Capital City of Warsaw No. VI/107/2024