Emilia Malessa Emilia Malessa , " neé " Izdebska ( " noms de guerre " : " Marcysia " , " Miłasza " , " Maniuta " ) ( born February 26 , 1909 in Rostov , died June 5 , 1949 ) , was a Polish soldier , member of the Home Army with the rank of Captain , participant in the Warsaw Uprising , member of the underground anti - communist organization Freedom and Independence ( WiN ) , and a " cavalier " of the Order of Virtuti Militari . Early life . Malessa was born in Tsarist Russia to Władysław Izdebski and Marii née Krukowska . After moving back to Poland , she finished a trade school in Łuck in 1924 . She worked in the Main Statistical Office in Warsaw and afterward moved to Gdynia . In 1935 she married Wojciech Malessa , but divorced him two years later . World War II . After the German invasion of Poland , she volunteered for the Women ' s Volunteer Services and took part in the September campaign . She was a driver and organizer of logistical supplies and field hospitals for the Polish 19th Infantry Division . In mid - October , she joined the underground organizations Service for Poland ' s Victory ( SZP ) and Union of Armed Struggle ( ZWZ ) , and later of the Polish Home Army ( AK ) . Until the end of the German occupation , she was the chief of the communication cell " Zagroda " attached to the Main Headquarters of the AK . Sometime in 1943 , she was married again to Jan Piwnik ( " " Ponury " " ) , one of the Cichociemni and a famous anti - Nazi partisan commander . Malessa took part in the Warsaw Uprising and afterward escaped from a transport that was taking the defeated insurrectionists to labor camps in Germany . She made her way to Kraków where she took part in the operation that brought the courier Jan Nowak - Jeziorański from Great Britain to Poland . Anti - Communist activities . After the Home Army was disbanded in January 1945 , Malessa joined the anti - communist resistance organization NIE . After NIE ceased in May 1945 , she was a member of the leadership committee of another anti - communist movement , Freedom and Independence ( WiN ) . In late 1945 , she expressed the desire to leave the organization . While she was in the process of being officially discharged , she was arrested by the Communist secret police ( UB ) who had managed to penetrate the organization ' s ranks . During the interrogations that followed her arrest , she trusted the " officer ' s word of honor " given by the UB chief Józef Różański that if she revealed the command and structure of Freedom and Independence , none of the persons she mentioned would be arrested , and further persecution directed at former AK soldiers stopped . With the permission of her commanders , Col . Jan Rzepecki and Col . Antoni Sanojcy who also took Różański ' s promise in good faith , she gave the UB a list of names of members and commanders of the organization . They were quickly arrested and Malessa , who was still in prison , began a hunger strike as a protest against the breaking of the promises . On February 14 , 1947 , she was sentenced to two years incarcerations . A few days later , she was " pardoned " by the President of communist Poland , Bolesław Bierut and released . She continued her hunger strike in front of the walls of the Mokotów Prison where those she had named were imprisoned . She immediately began making efforts to have the authorities fulfill the promises they had made and to have the soldiers of the underground released from prison . She wrote letters to Bierut , to the Minister of Security , Stanisław Radkiewicz , and to Różański . Her efforts were unsuccessful ; more and more WiN soldiers were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms or death . Shunned by the remains of the anti - communist underground and full of guilt , Emilia Malessa committed suicide on June 5 , 1949 . She was initially buried at Brodnowski Cemetery in Warsaw . On September 19 , 2005 , her body was exhumed and after a mass , the urn with her remains was re - buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery .