That the Nightingale Return

On August 1, 1944, Leokadia Rowinski and fellow members of the Polish Resistance movement 1saw the culmination of their five years of training—the Warsaw Uprising. Six weeks later, she celebrated her twenty-first birthday.
As a member of the Resistance, Rowinski witnessed firsthand the devastation that World War II brought to Poland. While continuing her schooling in the clandestine education system established upon German occupation, she worked in the Resistance’s communication services, often dodging German snipers and soldiers to deliver military orders to Resistance leaders. She was captured by the Germans after the Warsaw Uprising and spent six months in P.O.W. camps before being liberated by the Polish 1st Armored Division, an expatriate army under British command that included her future husband. This poignant story of a young woman’s coming of age in war is a vivid reminder of the horror inflicted upon Poland in World War II and beyond.

Leokadia Rowinski emigrated to the United States in 1951. Now retired, she lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Leokadia Rowinski
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 180
Bibliographic Info: 54 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2014 [1999]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7736-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1592-9
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Prologue 5

1. Be It Ever So Humble 7

2. A Suitcase of Memories 16

3. Zofia 19

4. When All This Madness Ends 26

5. Remembering Grandfather 33

6. Uncle Roman’s Ways 39

7. Traditions… Traditions… 44

8. War Comes to Warsaw 53

9. Living, Loving, and Dying in a Conquered City 62

10. Warsaw in Arms—The Fight for Freedom Begins 74

11. The Uprising Is Failing, the End Is Near 84

12. “Introibo ab Altare Dei” 94

13. Behind Barbed Wire 109

14. The Christmas That Came Anyway 115

15. Oberlangen, the Last Encounters with Captivity 121

16. On the Road of No Return 131

17. Invitation to a Waltz 139

18. Bon Jour, Brussels! Cheerio, England! Hello, America! 147

19. A Ride with Ewelinka and the Journey’s End 153


Epilogue 165

Index 169

“Rowinski tells her story well and family photos make the experience heartfelt and warm”—Polish American Journal; “a moving story, with family photographs showing six generations of the author’s kin”—The Sarmatian Review.