Henryka Bartnicka-Tajchert

Henryka Bartnicka-Tajchert (1922-1997) was a Polish Scout, member of Szare Szeregi and Mury.

Henryka was born in Włodawa on January 19, 1922. After finishing elementary school she attended Commerce School in Kowel in the years 1936-37. In 1937, she attended Gymnasium in Wlodawa. In the first year of the Second World War she worked for the insurance Company "Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen Wzajemnych" in Włodawa. She was arrested by the Gestapo in Włodawa on May 1, 1941 for involvement with the clandestine organization of the Polish Scouts "Szare Szeregi".

Probably, at the beginning of 1940, the scoutmaster Piotr Kolodziejek organized the clandestine cell of the "Szare Szeregi" in Włodawa. It can be said, that the Scout organization was headed by the Żelaźniewicz brothers. The activities of the scouts units had a military character. Training in handling guns and observation of the movement of German army units was conducted during the scouts meetings. Tragically, in April - June, 1941, the Gestapo, having the entire pre war documentation of the scouts units, had no trouble in penetrating the core of the "Szare Szeregi" organization. All the arrested members of the "Szare Szeregi" were interrogated, and often brutally beaten, by the members of the local Gestapo. Among those arrested was Henryka Bartnicka who was, subsequently, jailed in the Lublin castle. After several months of imprisonment, she was sent to the German concentration camp in Ravensbrück (bearing the prisoner number 7618). On September 23, 1941 in the Lublin transport (Sondertransport-the transport where all political prisoners were sentenced to death) she arrived at the camp.

She joined the clandestine scouts unit called "Mury" which was organized in the camp. She belonged to the unit's cell called "Cementy". Also, she participated in the clandestine educational system organized by prisoners of the camp. She attended classes on the high school level taught by Wanda Madlerowa, the prisoner number 6009- who was, in the pre war times, a principal in the Biała-Podlaska Gymnasium. Her classmates were: Krystyna Czyż, Janina Iwańska, Jolanta Krzyżanowska, Janina Marciniak, Janina Marczewska, Lala Siwecka-Betty, Halina Żaba. She stayed in Ravensbrück till February 28, 1945, when she was sent to the death camp (so called Vernichtungs- or Abfertig-unslager) in Bergen-Belsen, (she arrived there on the March 2). On April 15, 1945 the Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated by the British Army. After surviving typhus she was sent by the Red Cross to Sweden, where she recuperated until July 8, 1945. In Sweden, after the medical examination, the concentration camp survivors were relocated to various hospitals. Typhus patients were treated in the Malmö hospital. After being released from the hospital on August 2, 1945 she stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Jurgensen in the small town of Falsterbo located in the southern part of Sweden. In November of 1945 she returned to Włodawa in Poland where, subsequently, on June 15, 1946 she was matriculated and enrolled in the Warsaw Medical Academy, in the Dentistry Department. She graduated from the Academy in 1950. On August 8, 1948 she married Jan Tajchert who, during the war, was a member of the underground the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). From January 1, 1951 till February 29, 1956 she worked as a dentist in Ełk town. She returned to Włodawa in 1956 and worked there till her retirement in 1980.

She received the following decorations: "Krzyz Kawalerski OOP", "Srebrny Krzyz Zaslugi", "Medal Zwycięstwa i Wolności 1945", "Krzyż za Zasługi dla ZHP" and "Za zasługi dla Lubelszczyzny". She died on May 26, 1997 and was buried in the parish cemetery in Włodawa.