Ireneusz Rudnicki, a.k.a. “Emir”, fought in the Polish underground’s “Kiliński” battalion following the outbreak of the uprising on August 1, 1944, when resistance fighters in the capital rose up against Nazi German occupation.
The uprising lasted 63 days. By the time it had ended, over 80% of the city had been razed to the ground.
Around 18,000 insurgents were killed during the brutal fighting, and another 25,000 were injured.
Over 180,000 civilians died in German mass executions and bombings.
After the first 20 days of bitter fighting, Rudnicki’s battalion managed to recapture the Polish Telephone Exchange, which had been taken over by the Germans following Hitler’s invasion in 1939 and the start of WWII.
Bardzo smutna wiadomość w przededniu 80. rocznicy Powstania Warszawskiego.
W wieku 102 lat w USA zmarł Ireneusz...
Opublikowany przez Nie Zapomnij O Nas, Powstańcach Warszawskich Wtorek, 30 lipca 2024
Rudnicki gained hero status as one of the insurgents who raised the Polish flag on the building.
He was wounded on August 31, 1944, and after the uprising was imprisoned in the Stalag 344 (later renumbered 318) POW camp in the Silesian town of Lamsdorf, then part of Germany.
Announcing his death on social media, the memorial group “Don't Forget About Us” said: “Very sad news on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
“Ireneusz Rudnicki, pseudonym “Emir”, a soldier of the “Kiliński” battalion, has died in the USA at the age of 102.
“In March, he celebrated his 73rd wedding anniversary with his wife Danuta, a medic from the Uprising!
“They met after the war in exile.”
Describing the “secret of their love”, the memorial group added a quote from Rudnicki’s widow saying: “Above all, understanding, division of duties, common interests are important.
“We never argued about who should do what. It wasn't easy, but we were always inseparable.”
After Poland’s resistance fighters eventually surrendered following two months of bloody fighting in the Warsaw Uprising, around 500,000 surviving inhabitants of the city were expelled.
On the orders of an enraged Hitler, who had expected the uprising to be dealt with sooner, German troops began to systematically level the Polish capital to the ground.
