Elżbieta Zawacka bronze sitting statue stands in the city she was born and died in front of the Elżbieta Zawacka Foundation Headquarters in Torun, Poland. It was created by the local sculptor Tadeusz Porębski who depicted her as an 80 years old woman, wearing her military decorations. A plaque on the wall behind the statue describes HerStory, work, and legacy.
Elżbieta Zawacka (1909-2009) was an educator, a soldier, and a spy who fought for her country.
During WW2, when the Nazis took over Poland and the Polish Government was in exile, Zawacka became a courier for the Silesian branch of Armed Resistance, transporting letters from occupied Poland to the Polish Government. In 1943 she crossed Europe to London for parachute training (the only woman who became ‘Cichociemna’) and participated in several undercover operations, including the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, she joined the underground Association for Freedom and Independence, an anti-communist group for a short time. Tired of conflicts, she quit and went to work as a teacher. In 1951 she was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to 10 years in jail for treason and espionage. After four years, she got released and finished her doctorate. For years, she worked as a tenured professor at the Institute of Pedagogy at Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń and founded the Andragogy department (adult education).
In 2006, the Polish Government promoted her to Brigadier General, the second and the last woman to hold that rank in the Polish military.
The monument was unveiled on 26 September 2014, the Polish Underground State Day, in a special ceremony, honored with the support of the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski.
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