Krystyna Wituska (1920–1944)

On the day Walc was murdered in the flames, Krystyna Wituska had already been dead for nearly a year. She was executed by guillotine on 26 June 1944 in the “Roter Ochse” prison in Halle/Saale. Before her death, Wituska wrote a goodbye letter to her parents, in which she also mentions her friendly guard Helga Grimpe: 

“Dear parents! You will receive this letter after my death. It will be sent to you by a person whom we have so much to thank for (Helga Grimpe). Here, she was our friend and carer at the same time. At risk to her life, she tried to alleviate our suffering as best she could. She shared everything with us that she had in a truly selfless way. (...) While I’m writing this letter, I naturally know nothing about the outcome of my request for clemency, but you can believe me when I say that I am ready for death and that I am not getting up my hopes in vain. Being separated from you for several months has increased my affection for you even more, and I will find it hard to go and leave you behind feeling so sad. Please believe me, though, that I can meet my death with my head held high and without fear. This is my final duty to you and to my country. For me, prison was a good and sometimes also difficult lesson in life, but there were days that were so joyous and sunny. (...) We will die on the eve of victory and with the knowledge that we have not acted against injustice and violence in vain. Do not grieve, dearest parents, be brave, Mummy. Think that I am always looking down on you and that every one of your tears causes me pain. I will smile at you when you smile at me. May God reward you for the love and care that you have shown me! Adieu, dear parents, adieu Halinka. Your Tina.”[2]

Krystyna Wituska’s body was handed over to the institute of anatomy at the University of Halle. In 2014, a memorial stela with a plaque and relief image of Krystyna Wituska was erected in the Gertraudenfriedhof cemetery in Halle, where she and 60 other victims of the Nazi regime were buried anonymously. This would not have been possible without the letter written in 2003 by Maria Kacprzyk, her fellow prisoner who survived the war, to the former “Roter Ochse” prison, now a memorial site, in the hope of obtaining information about her friend who had been executed there. This letter sparked the years of research by Lars Skowronski, a historian at the “Roter Ochse” memorial site, and the publicist Simone Trieder. The results led to several publications, including two books, dedicated to Krystyna Wituska, the other Polish women prisoners, and Zbigniew Walc. The memories of Maria Kacprzyk and the women who survived the Nazi prison have made it possible to commemorate the life of Krystyna Wituska and the other women executed by the Hitler regime by means of the symbolic stela in the Gertraudenfriedhof cemetery. On 18 March 2010, Krystyna Wituska was posthumously awarded the Commandery of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for her “special services rendered for the independence of the Republic of Poland”.

Monika Stefanek, February 2021

Literature:

• S. Trieder, L. Skowronski, Zelle Nr. 18. Eine Geschichte von Mut und Freundschaft. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn 2014.
• S. Trieder, Nik und Tina. Gefährliche Briefe 1938-1944. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2018.
• A. Morawska, Wybór listów Krystyny Wituskiej, Miesięcznik Znak, Kraków 1969, nr 9.
• P. Bukalska, Śmierć w Berlinie. Tygodnik Powszechny, 19.04.2011.