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• The backyard of the uprising (...)
• In the second half of the 19th century (...)
• Magdalena Mańczak, a certified nurse who (...)
• When the uprising broke out (...)
• The Budny sisters were runners who helped the insurgents (...)
• Organisation and equipment (...)

Magdalena Mańczak, a certified nurse who, after returning from Vienna, on 3 January 1919 was assigned by Poznań Military Command to the military hospital in Krotoszyn, also took part in the uprising. In Krotoszyn, she worked as a nurse in the operating room and brought the injured from the front in Zduny to the hospital, in cooperation with Doctor Robińska.

There were other female doctors who participated in the uprising, although there were very few of them. One of them was Emilia Hanke – doctor of medicine, a rheumatologist and social activist, who was an assistant doctor on the western front.

When the uprising broke out, the demand for medical orderlies grew so rapidly that, as well as medically trained persons, all volunteers were accepted to sanitary service, even untrained women who gained experience while working as medical orderlies. 

At the same time, training courses were still organised by spontaneously formed units of the Red Cross, which in March 1919, during the uprising, were brought together to form the Polish Red Cross.

Activities undertaken by the women involved in sanitary service included giving first aid to injured insurgents and transporting them in ambulances to dressing points or field hospitals. They took care of the injured and the disabled also during their stay in hospitals or rehabilitation centres. They also set up small field hospitals, where they took care of issues related to administration, supplies and cleaning. As access to dressings and bandages was very difficult, they frequently made them themselves by tearing bed linen, donated by local people, into strips. As well as the typical sanitary work, they also cared about their patients’ mental condition by comforting them and keeping their spirits up.

In Miejska Górka, Agnieszka Mikus with her friends Hajducka, Anderszówna, Malinowska and Garstecka cleaned up a school indicated by a town councillor and prepared places for the insurgents to sleep. In this improvised hospital, they worked as medical orderlies, taking care of the injured brought from Rawicz.

Maria Dutkiewicz with her sisters Monika and Wojciecha were in Rogoźno when the uprising broke out. They set up an improvised hospital in a local secondary school. They collected the soldiers injured on the front in Budzyn from the railway station.

The Krzywin unit of the Red Cross, organised and trained by Antoni Wilkowski, accompanied the Krzywin Company in occupying Wolsztyn. There were 4 medical orderlies in the unit: Czesława Biskupska, Maria Maćkowiak-Sobkowiak, Stanisława Nowak-Porankiewicz and Maria Werblewicz-Szymaniak.

In November 1918, Pelagia Łukomska set up a unit of the Polish Red Cross in Śmigiel, and, later, a dressing point for injured insurgents in the German hospital run by deaconnesses. In the hospital, Polish medical orderlies were persecuted by the German staff who prevented them from carrying out their duties.

On the initiative of Wanda Niegolewska, a field hospital was set up in Buk, where the injured from the Western Front were treated. Niegolewska personally supervised the hospital’s work and provided support to the families of the injured. Other medical orderlies working there were, among others, Klara Błaszczyńska and Władysława Gmerek. 

During the uprising, Maria Kurnatowska’s mansion in Gościeszyn was a supply base for the insurgents and, at the same time, a place where the injured were treated. Kurnatowska supervised its activity in person. Her two daughters worked at the hospital in Wolsztyn. 

The mansion in Łabiszyn, owned by Maria Skórzewska, was also strategically significant to the defence of a section of the nearby front. In the mansion, the countess organised a Red Cross unit, which treated the injured brought to Łabiszyn. 

It is also worth noting that 12 women were involved in the production of medication and dressings at the Sanitary Depot in Poznań. Marianna Sobczyńska, a nurse with the rank of sergeant, worked there.

Organisation of food and supplies

The discussion on the backyard of insurgent activities and women's participation in them should also cover the issues of providing food and supplies. The beginnings of the insurgents’ nutrition date back to the above-mentioned “Bonfires” at the Central Station. Later, Izabela Drwęska set up several more kitchens and points where meals were served. However, access to food was limited. In 1916, a ration card system was introduced, which quickly covered basic food products. Every day meal served in the kitchens was thus composed merely of coffee, soup and bread.