Halina Szwarc '' de domo'' Kłąb (1923–2002) - was a member of the Polish resistance during the Second World War, working undercover first under the pseudonym Ryszard, then Jacek II. Postwar, she became a professor of medicine in gerontology, and in 1970/1971, the prorector of the

Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw ( pl, Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego Józefa Piłsudskiego w Warszawie, lit=Józef Piłsudski Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw) is a public institution of higher learning in Warsaw ...

. After the outbreak of war, at the age of 16, she joined the Związek Walki Zbronej (ZWZ), the resistance organization that eventually became the

Polish Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...

. Under order, she signed the ''

Volksliste The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List), a Nazi Party institution, aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939-1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich H ...

'', basing her claim to ''

Volksdeutsche In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of '' volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sin ...

'' status on a German grandmother. She was allowed to finish her schooling in a German language school and in 1940, travelled west into the heart of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, ostensibly to further her education. She would, in fact, be spying for the ZWZ. She conducted operations in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and other major German cities. Szwarc's greatest contribution to the war effect was her surveying of military installations in Hamburg, making possible their destruction by Allied bombers. Later, she took a job in the Berlin Archive of Army Medicine, where she was able to collect invaluable information concerning German troop positions on the Eastern Front. In 1944, following her return to her home town of Łodź, she was arrested by the Gestapo. She was tortured and condemned to death by firing squad, but the sentence was not carried out. After the war, she finished her medical studies and began to work in the clinic of the Poznan University of Medical Sciences. Like other members of the Home Army, Szwarc was viewed as a possible traitor by the new Communist regime. Despite continual persecution by the security service and other forms of repression in Stalinist Poland, she managed to advance her academic career. In 2000, she was honored with the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievement ...

for her achievements in the medical field.

Publications

*''Rekreacja i turystyka ludzi w starszym wieku'' - Halina Szwarc, Teresa Wolańska, Tadeusz Łobożewicz, Instytut Wydawniczy Związków Zawodowych, Warszawa 1988, *''Rekreacja ruchowa osób starszych'' : praca zbiorowa / pod red. Teresy Wolańskiej ; ut.H. Szwarc, R. Wasilewska, T. Wolańska, Wydawnictwo Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego, Warszawa 1986 *''Rekreacja ruchowa osób starszych'' : praca zbiorowa / H. Szwarc, R. Wasilewska, T. Wolańska ; pod red. Teresy Wolańskiej, Wydawnictwo Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego, Warszawa 1979 *''Wspomnienia z pracy w wywiadzie antyhitlerowskim ZWZ-AK'', "Neriton", Warszawa 1999,

External links

Dziewczyna silniejsza od gestapo

Spektakl „Doktor Halina” w TVP1Doktor Halina

Kombatant, June 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szwarc, Halina Home Army members Polish geriatricians Women geriatricians Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Polish women in war 2002 deaths 1923 births Women in World War II Polish women physicians 20th-century Polish physicians Polish people of World War II 20th-century women physicians 20th-century Polish women