Zaleska, Katherine (1919–)

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Zaleska, Katherine (1919–)

Polish-Jewish resistance fighter. Name variations: also seen as Katherina Zalenska. Born 1919 in Lvov, Poland; attended Rockefeller Nursing School, Warsaw; studied medicine at Poznan and Stettin universities in Poland; served as registrar of St. James's Hospital, London; married in 1959 (div.).

During World War II, was a courier with her sister for the Polish resistance, carrying messages to Hungary through German-occupied territory; worked as a nurse in a hospital in Cracow until it closed in 1941, after which she enrolled in nursing studies at the Rockefeller Nursing School in Warsaw, while also acting as a courier for the Warsaw resistance movement (the Home Army), using the codename "Juka"; twice earned decorations for valor, which included helping Jews escape from the besieged Warsaw Ghetto in 1944; married a fellow Pole (1959) and moved with him to Lagos, Nigeria, where she secured work as an ENT Specialist in the General Hospital.

See also Women in World History.