Feminists, Nationalists, and Soldiers: Women in the Fight for Polish Independence

Abstract

Gertzowna, who fought in the Polish units attached to the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, later recalled: 'From my earliest years, my dream was to become a soldier in the Polish army. My father, an insurgent in 1863, lived with the hope of seeing an independent Poland. Insurgents often gathered at our home as well, spinning yarns about a free Poland. And I dreamed, brought up on stories of heroism.'1 Although women were forbidden to serve in these units, Gertzowna, undaunted, responded to a clandestine recruiting drive in early 1916. She took the name of Kazimierz Zuchowicz, left her native Warsaw (where she might be recognized), and reported to Lublin as a new recruit. There she faced an army physical. For a moment, it looked as if her adventure would end abruptly. Yet, with the help of a few sympathetic soldiers (and the ambivalence of the unsympathetic ones), Gertzowna avoided the doctors and got herself assigned to the First Artillery Regiment of the Second Brigade of Polish Legions. She served on the Eastern Front, attached to a howitzer battery, for more than six months and finished her tour of duty undetected.2