Elżbieta Zawacka, aka „Zo” – legendary AK courier and the only female among Silent Unseen

19/03/2025
History

Elżbieta Zawacka was the only woman to join the ranks of the Polish elite troops of Silent Unseen that were trained in Britain and later parachuted back to Poland to uphold the resistance against German occupation.

Elżbieta Zawacka was born on 19 March 1909 in Toruń. She studied mathematics at the University of Poznań. After graduation, she worked as a teacher and participated in the Women’s Military Training, of which she was a commander in the Silesia Region.

She took part in the Polish Campaign of 1939 in the ranks of the Women’s Auxiliary Service Battalion, and then in the nucleus of the conspiracy in Silesia. Initially, she was active in the Polish Victory Service, then in the Union for Armed Struggle, and finally in the Home Army.

By the end of 1940, she was in charge of communications for the Silesian District of the Union for Armed Struggle (ZWZ) and was soon assigned to the courier service in Warsaw. In conspiracy, she was known under the pseudonym Zo.

Elżbieta Zawacka was a true legend among the AK couriers in occupied Europe. Between 1939 and 1945, using false documents, she crossed borders more than a hundred times, carrying messages and reports to the West.

After the end of the war, she joined the structures of the anti-communist conspiracy within the organisation WiN (Wolność i Niezawisłość, Eng. Freedom and Independence).

In 1951 she was arrested by the communist Security Office and was imprisoned until 1955.

In 1956 she resumed her scientific work. She obtained her PhD in 1965 and her habilitation in 1972 and returned to her hometown of Toruń, where she took up a post at the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

In December 1995 Elżbieta Zawacka was awarded the Order of the White Eagle. She was also honoured with the Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour five times.

On 13 June 2006, she received the act of awarding the rank of Brigadier-General by the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński.

The story of Elżbieta Zawacka was popularised in Britain, especially after the book “Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka” by Claire Mulley was published in May 2024.

A few years ago, Mulley also wrote a biography of Krystyna Skarbek, a Polish agent for the British Special Operations Executive, SOE, during the Second World War.