Historical story

Can the romance of a Polish woman with an NKVD activist be justified?

She was young and beautiful. She made love affairs easily, and the power she had over men would have struck anyone's head. She spent the war playing in a casino with Germans and collaborators. Later she became a pet of the NKVD. What is his excuse?

I used my beauty and grace without scruples - recalls his contacts with the secret police Ludwika Zachariasiewicz. The author of the book "Dating with the enemy" in 1946 began working in the Citizens' Militia in Grudziądz. Thanks to this, she had the opportunity to meet local security officers. She flirted with them openly, hung out in restaurants, danced with them.

Her own family and all her friends considered her a traitor. If they just shaved your head, I would be happy, but they can still shoot you - Ludwika's grandmother wrung her hands. The granddaughter laughed at such remarks, although there was nothing really cheerful about her situation. The real reason why she went on dates with the enemy she couldn't tell her family though.

Grace in the services of the Home Army

When the war broke out, Ludwika was only 17 years old. Her father, an officer, was captured by the Germans. He spent the entire occupation in a POW camp in Murnau. The girl was drawn into the conspiracy by an acquaintance. She began by writing down information from radio listings. Then she helped to issue false documents. She also dealt with the distribution of the underground press and weapons.

These small tasks were just an introduction to more non-standard missions. One of them was ... playing roulette in the casino. The young conspirator watched the Polish collaborators coming there. She would later point to them as "hers". Soon the players were visited by members of an underground organization demanding money for the Home Army.

This is what Ludwika Zachariasiewicz looked like during the observation of Warsaw casinos. Photo from 1943 from the family collection (the photo comes from the book "Dating with the enemy", recently published by PWN Scientific Publishers and Ośrodek Karta).

Also in the summer of 1944, when Warsaw was getting ready for an uprising, the superiors of Lusia (as Ludwika was called) prepared a special task for her. The twenty-two-year-old was not to be part of the great rush. It was decided to use her greatest strengths:courage, self-control, cleverness and ... attractive appearance. The girl found out that she was suitable for an interview. She felt like the Polish Mata Hari! She assumed the new function in the dark, having no idea what she was really doing. And so she ended up in Wołomin, where her grandparents had lived for some time. She was ordered to wait patiently for the arrival of the Soviets.

This is our little girl

Soviet units appeared in Wołomin in September. Ludwika, in accordance with earlier instructions, immediately went to the magistrate, where the NKVD was in office. She revealed that she belonged to the Home Army and volunteered to cooperate. From that moment on, the Soviets visited her home practically every day. They took their new associate to the casino, restaurant and banquets organized for the "liberators". They said about her: This is our little girl .

Lusia's grandparents looked at her new friendships with reluctance. Meanwhile, in the book "Dating with the enemy", she admits that one of the Soviet investigators even caught her eye. I liked it and he liked it too. We met a lot. In this crowd of events, Józek's image was blurred - she relates, recalling her fiancé with whom she lost contact after the uprising broke out.

Ludwika and "her" officer lived together in one quarters. It was he who gave her the names of people whom the NKVD intended to observe. However, not all of them were treated the same favorably. She says about another encampment that he tried to get close to her, but she pushed him away.

Polish Mata Hari returned to Warsaw with the Soviets. She was assigned to the NKVD counterintelligence unit of Colonel Shkurin, stationed in Prague. The girl hoped that she would find her former lover in the capital and establish contact with her superior from the Home Army.

Lusia had to wait many months for a message from Home Army soldiers. Finally, she was instructed to provide information on where the Soviets were going, who they were arresting and where they were transporting those arrested. The contact point with the Polish conspirators was ... a beauty salon in Praga . It had to be the perfect place for Ludwika. She mastered the role of an attractive, vain bumblebee, for whom a beautiful appearance is the most important, already during the occupation.

At some point, however, the situation began to overwhelm the attractive agent. She was tired of watching the brutality of the Soviets every day. It also did not fully accept the activities of the Home Army at the time. It is different to fight in the uprising, another such single killing somewhere, some attack on the village head or on the village leader - he writes in the book "Dating with the enemy." She broke down. She broke off contacts with both the NKVD and the Polish underground. She took her grandparents and fled to her hometown of Grudziądz.

Polish Mata Hari?

Ludwika thought that in the city where she grew up she would be able to start a normal life. Nothing could be more wrong. The Polish underground found her. She was accused of indiscipline and arbitrariness. And he was persuaded to continue working in the underground. This is how she got to work at the Citizens' Militia headquarters.

Her new task was, a trifle, to establish contacts with ... the Security Office. As it turned out, it was not that difficult. UB officers had a paw on all sections of the militia - translates Ludwika . So she started with innocent flirts, and after a short time she offered to cooperate. She was received with open arms. She signed the declaration and received the pseudonym "Lena". She pledged to report on Home Army soldiers .

At that time, Lusia was an exceptionally valuable collaborator for the Polish underground. Surrounded by security officers, she had access to a lot of important information. She knew the locations of the planned actions and she knew who was threatened with arrest. She acquired knowledge in every possible way. Ubowcy liked to brag about, especially how they drank - he tells in "Dating with the Enemy".

The building in Grudziądz, which now houses the State Music School, has its dark secret. This is where the PUBP headquarters was located, where Lusia was supposed to come with denunciations (photo:Kudak, license CC BY-SA 4.0, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.0).

It also acted more unconventionally. As she admits, she made romances easily. I am having fun in some loss - she remembers the New Year's Eve she spent with several UB employees. In retrospect, he calls his own behavior adventurous. And she adds that what she was doing cannot be fully justified by acting on the orders of the Polish underground. Confident and confident, she reveled in the influence she had on men. She believed that she was in fact Polish Mat Hari. I could have completely lost the boundary between good and bad - he states in his honest account.

At the same time, this seasoned conspirator felt more and more alone. She could not count on the support of her loved ones. Friends moved away from her. I don't know you - answered her friends whom she accosted on the street. Ludwika felt as if all Grudziadz wanted to spit in her face. And she was wading into forbidden relations with the enemy, not only now to be effective in the Polish underground, but also out of a feeling of helplessness. She wanted to get back at the people who condemned her. I felt above my girlfriends that they were such dancers, and I was playing on dances ... I was acting out in a bad way ... And so slowly I started to slide downhill.

Bittersweet game end

Ludwika lost her overconfidence. It was not limited to providing information to the liaison officer coming from Warsaw. She also collaborated with partisans. She popped up when she decided to act on her own. She was arrested while trying to steal money from a candy factory. It was the beginning of 1946. She was only 24 years old.

The arrested Ludwika underwent, inter alia, prison in Bydgoszcz-Fordon, then intended for women convicted in political trials (photo:Danpre, public domain).

A tough investigation awaited the young double agent. She was beaten and tortured. He also mentions attempted rape. She was most afraid of tearing her nails off and being thrown into a basement full of rats. It happened. I started to testify. I was sleeping. I think everyone has their endurance limit - he admits 70 years later. She was imprisoned in Fordon. She was released after the amnesty was announced in 1952.

Ludwika was silent for many years. Only recently has she decided to tell about her wartime and post-war fate. Her testimony is unique. It is known that Zachariasiewicz was not the only conspirator who gave her beauty and charm to the services of the Home Army. However, she was the only one who made the history of her dating with the enemy public.