Battalion “Zośka” in Wola

On August 1, 1944, the “Zośka” Battalion was mobilized for insurgent combat in Warsaw. At the start of the uprising, it was the best-equipped, best-armed, and most experienced combat unit in the Warsaw District of the Home Army. Alongside the “Parasol” Battalion, it was part of the “Broda 53” Diversion Brigade within the Lt. Col. “Radosław” (Jan Mazurkiewicz) Grouping. Together, the “Zośka” Battalion defended the residents of Wola against the occupying forces’ atrocities, liberated the “Gęsiówka” concentration camp (Warschauer Konzentrationslager)—where the Germans had imprisoned 348 Jews from various countries of occupied Europe—and fought for the Wola cemeteries, which were under attack by German troops from the west. Sadly, seventy-five of the 320 “Zośka” soldiers died in Wola.