Zofia Konieczka was born on August 25, 1918, in Berlin, the daughter of Bolesław and Gertruda. She spent most of her childhood in Poznań. As a child and adult, she was fluent in German, which later helped her work with the Polish Home Army.
After Her First Husband's Death, Zofia Began Collaborating with the Home Army
In Poznań, she met merchant Janusz Rapp, whom she married in 1940. After the war broke out, the city was annexed by the Third Reich. As Polish citizens, the couple received an order to relocate to the General Government. They moved into one of the vacant apartments in Warsaw. However, Janusz was struggling with cancer, which quickly led to his death. It was then that Zofia decided to join the Home Army.
During the war, Jan Stanisław Jankowski, head of the Home Army’s Legalization and Intelligence Technique Department, forged documents for her under the name Marie Springer, a Volksdeutsche. Because of her knowledge of German, she was sent on missions between Poland and the Third Reich (Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Ludwigshafen, Saarbrucken, and Heidelberg). The goal of these trips was to gather intelligence on the air defense and defense systems of Berlin, Hanover, and Hamburg. She transferred all the information onto maps and made reports.
In Germany, she tried to help Polish forced laborers by giving them food from perfectly forged ration cards that she "was entitled to" as a "German." From them, she learned that batteries for submarines were being produced in Hanover, enabling the Allies to successfully raid the factory.
Fluency in German and Her Beauty Helped Her Gather Information
Her impeccable accent and striking beauty helped Zofia gain access to cities blocked off after air raids, sometimes with the help of Nazi soldiers who smuggled her in. Zofia's greatest success was determining the location of the battleship "Tirpitz," the largest Kriegsmarine unit that had eluded the Allies for many months.
Her cousin in Berlin, a young lieutenant stationed on the battleship, proved helpful. He returned to Germany for a short leave and, eager to impress Zofia, shared stories of his war adventures. Zofia managed to extract crucial information about the number of crew, aircraft on board, and the caliber of the guns, and learned that the ship was hidden in a Norwegian fjord. Her report even included photos of the battleship given to her by her cousin.
Arrested by the Gestapo at Eight Months Pregnant, She Simulates Labor to Escape
During her operations, Zofia met the handsome paratrooper lieutenant Jan Kochański, codenamed "Maciek." They married in March 1943. Due to the high risk of exposure, they were transferred under new names to Lviv. In November, at eight months pregnant, Zofia was arrested with her husband by the Gestapo. During the first interrogation, she was asked if she thought they wouldn't beat a pregnant woman for information. Zofia denied working for British intelligence, admitting only to providing food to Polish workers.
After two weeks, she simulated labor but was not taken to the hospital, instead being placed in a Jewish barracks with typhus patients. The next day, all prisoners, except for her and two wounded women, were murdered before their eyes. Zofia was then taken to the infamous NKVD building in Lviv, where she received her first encrypted message from the Home Army, instructing her to simulate a difficult labor to see a doctor. Eventually, the Gestapo transported her to a hospital, where she was guarded day and night by a soldier.
In December, the hospital was very cold. One day, a Hungarian guard gave Zofia his coat. During visiting hours, she went to the bathroom, put on a smuggled dress and shoes, and managed to leave the hospital, pretending to be a visitor. She took a tram to the apartment of an underground woman who had been sending her messages. Years later, she recalled fainting as soon as the door to the apartment opened.
Escape to Warsaw and Immediate Hospitalization for Delivery
After leaving the hospital, Zofia needed to be transported to Warsaw. Judge Tadeusz Semadeni from the underground court helped her, disguising her as a brunette and providing false documents. With an alert in Lviv, they left from a station 50 kilometers away. They changed trains several times, buying tickets for short distances. Upon arrival in Warsaw, Zofia was immediately taken to the hospital on Emilii Plater Street, where she gave birth to a healthy son, Maciej, on January 4, 1944.
Her husband Jan, who had been compromised by the Gestapo, was transported to Warsaw and imprisoned on Pawiak, from where he was taken out on February 16, 1944, for execution. Kochański died knowing he had become a father.
During the Warsaw Uprising, Zofia lived in the city, frequently changing addresses to avoid the Gestapo. Despite caring for her young son, she joined the "Bakcyl" unit (sanitary unit of the Warsaw District of the Home Army). Her seven-month-old son was fed by soldiers from nearby units.
"I Wasn't Afraid of the Gestapo, So Why Should I Fear a Polish Officer?"
On October 4, 1944, she left Warsaw with the civilian population, first going to a transit camp in Pruszków, from which she escaped with her son, sick with measles. She then went to Gdańsk, where she stayed with Danuta Rylska and met her brother, General Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski. They married two years later and moved to Poznań before relocating to Warsaw's Radość district in 1963.
After the war, Zofia revealed herself as a Home Army soldier, attracting the interest of the Security Service. In 1946, she was summoned for questioning by the Warsaw Security Office. Known for his brutality, Józef Różański asked if she wasn't afraid to come alone. Zofia replied that she wasn't afraid of the Gestapo, so why should she fear a Polish officer?
The Ścibor-Rylskis raised Zofia's only son, Maciej, together. After moving, Zofia ran a craft workshop at the "Reflex" cooperative. She passed away on July 7, 1999, in Warsaw. Maciej passed away on 2009. Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski passed away on 2018, in Warsaw.
