Warsaw
94-year-old Antifa elderly woman fights against right-wing extremists: “Shut up, you idiot!”
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska was held prisoner by the Nazis until she was liberated from Oberlangen camp by Polish troops in 1945. After the war she worked as a teacher in a center for disabled children. She kept her fighting spirit as an anti-fascist.
© Wojtek Radwanski / AFP
Wanda Traczyk-Stawska is concerned not only with increasing nationalism, but also with how refugees are treated on the border between Poland and Belarus.
“Shut up, you idiot! Dirty tyrant,” the little old lady calls into the microphone. She insults the right-wing extremists who are disrupting a pro-EU demonstration in Warsaw. Wanda Traczyk-Stawska doesn’t shy away from arguments, not even at 94 years of age. 80 years ago she fought against the Nazis, today she campaigns for Poland to remain in the EU and for refugees.
Tens of thousands took to the streets for the European Union at the October demonstration after the Polish Constitutional Court questioned the primacy of EU law over national law. Right at the front: the petite Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, with a military beret on her head and the armband of the former resistance fighters against the Nazis.
As a girl scout in the resistance
“I’m a soldier, I don’t mince my words,” says Traczyk-Stawska later over a cup of tea in her house on the outskirts of Warsaw. A Polish and an EU flag fly in front of the entrance.
Traczyk-Stawska was twelve years old when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland. As a girl scout, she joined the resistance and participated in acts of sabotage. Your code name: donuts.
She was also present at the Warsaw uprising in August 1944 as one of the 50,000 resistance fighters who revolted against the Nazi occupiers. Traczyk-Stawska even carried a machine gun – a big exception for girls at the time. Almost 200,000 civilians and fighters died in the 63 days of the uprising, and the whole city was in ruins.
Anti-fascist fighting spirit preserved
The Nazis held Traczyk-Stawska prisoner until she was liberated from the Oberlangen camp in 1945 by Polish troops. After the war she worked as a teacher in a center for disabled children.
The Traczyk-Stawska has retained its fighting spirit. Today she opposes the eurosceptics of the nationalist government in Poland. Remaining in the EU “is a question of national security,” she says. “What would happen if we left the EU? We already had the experience of 1939,” when Poland faced Hitler’s Germany on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. “That is the worst danger for us, we would be like a fly in front of an elephant,” warns Traczyk-Stawska in a strong voice that does not seem to fit her slight stature at all.
At the demonstration in October, she was angry when the right-wing extremists disrupted the rally. “I went on stage to say which Poland we veterans of the uprising dreamed of – a tolerant and kind Poland.” After her performance, Traczyk-Stawska received anonymous death threats. On Thursday, Polish Independence Day, thousands of right-wing extremists and nationalists marched through the streets of Warsaw.
Concerns about dealing with refugees
Traczyk-Stawska worries not only about increasing nationalism, but also about how refugees are treated on the border between Poland and Belarus. Thousands of migrants have been wandering around the border area in the freezing cold for days. At least ten people have already died, seven of them on the Polish side, according to media reports.
Brussels accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately smuggling the refugees to the border in order to take revenge for the EU sanctions that were imposed on the opposition for his brutal actions. Thousands of Polish soldiers are stationed at the border and are pushing migrants, including women and children, back to Belarus.
“The way children are treated at the border is shameful,” says Traczyk-Stawska, thinking back to her own childhood when she saw Nazis “having fun shooting babies”. The former resistance fighter would prefer to oppose the inhuman approach today. “But we no longer have the strength to defend ourselves against it,” says the 94-year-old. “I am sorry that I am so old and frail.”