Leokadia Rowinska became a Polish freedom fighter at the age of 16. During World War II, she served as a courier for the Polish Underground in Warsaw. Committed to her education, she continued her high school and university studies by meeting at designated addresses in secret with teachers and other students, even though this was punishable by death. She was fluent in many languages such as English, German, French, and Spanish. In 1946, she married Polish Army veteran Stanislaw Rowinski. They settled in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where they raised their six children.
Leokadia used this the leather map case bag and pencil case to gather and transmit information between units of resistance fighters. She took six weeks medical training to learn how to treat the wounded in the Polish Underground. She also learned Morse Code and how to operate a manual telephone switchboard. Those skills came in handy during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
These photographs of Leokadia with friends are undated, but might have been taken in the immediate aftermath of the war.
After Leokadia was caught by the Germans for delivering messages to different units, she was sent to Oberlangen Prison. During her time here, she kept a journal that consisted of a wide variety of information. Her journal, which included daily calendars, was made out of burlap from the ticking on her bed. She left space for each day in her calendar and kept notes on anything she had observed or thought to be important. The Center also possesses one of Leokadia’s notebooks from the war.
This is Leokadia’s postwar identity card showing that she was in Oberlangen Prison and her occupation was “student.” After the war, veterans of the Polish Armed Forces who had been prisoners of war in German concentration camps were given these identity cards.
This 100-Zloty bank note belonged to Leokadia. Printed by the German government in Poland, this is an example of the official government currency in German-occupied Poland during the war. Poles had to swap their old Polish notes, which were worthless, for German Zloty. Poles in Soviet-occupied territories had to so the same. The unprinted part on the left of the front shows Stanislaw Drewno, the minter master. The back of the note shows the Polish Bank Building in Warsaw in 1928. This particular note was printed in March 1940.
This booklet verifies that the Republic of Poland awarded Leokadia Rowenska the Warsaw Uprising Cross in 1997.