My husband was still locked up. Soon my mother was arrested in July and my father in August. And I was alone, travelling between three prisons. Jarek and I managed to get married when I got out, we got married at the registry office in Okrzei Str. on 26 May, when he was on a 3-day leave. Mum was soon arrested. Each time when I was trying to go on holiday a telegram brought me back saying: 'come back, mother arrested', 'come back, father arrested'. I was helping my mother, travelling between the three prisons and the St Martin's, carrying parcels.
They knocked on the door in the morning, they had a habit of coming at six o'clock when everyone was still home. I realised it was a search. To my dad's great surprise, I jumped out of bed like a scalded cat, and you could never get me out of bed. I leapt like a deer, books packed, and said I absolutely had to go to school. There was a lucky misunderstanding. I told the secret police officers I had an important maths test and had to go. They called someone at the headquarters, who - as I imagine - asked who was home. "Mr, Mrs and a daughter" is how they phrased it. Apparently they were asked what was the age of the daughter. He asked me: "Which grade are you in?" I said, truthfully, in the first grade, because I was in the first grade of high school. He hung up the phone and said: "Well, you can go to school". I think their bosses did not know I was 15, they just thought I was 7. So they let me go, and the first thing I did was run to the phone box. It was difficult to find a working one. I called Kuroń to warn everyone not to visit my parents’ home because it was a trap.
When they came to my house, it was 11:45 pm. My parents were not there, just me and Jarek [Jaroslaw Guzy, A. Romaszewska's fiancé]. I opened the door, not expecting the secret police, because the peephole was blocked with a finger. I thought it was my dad who was just coming back from Gdańsk and was fooling around. I opened the door and they came in - I think a plain-clothes officer, two maybe three uniformed men and a woman, certainly because of my mum. They asked "Ms Romaszewska?" I said yes. "Irena Zofia?" "No, Agnieszka”. They looked, talked among themselves and said: "Doesn’t matter, come with us." And this is where the whole story began. I was still resisting and saying no. I did not realise that my resistance did not matter, I was still living in the Solidarity era. I thought that might make a difference. I sat down by the bed, grabbed the railings and said that this gentleman was very ill and that I would not leave him. They replied that the gentleman would also go, they dragged him out of bed and in the blink of an eye, I did not even notice when, they handcuffed him and dragged him out in his pyjamas. I said he did not have any clothes on, they said "Get him dressed, then". I put on his socks and shoes over his pyjamas, and tied a jumper around his neck, as his hands were already cuffed and it was difficult to dress him. I also put on his trousers and threw a coat and scarf over his shoulders. I put some cigarettes in one pocket and his toothbrush in the other. I wrapped myself in my thickest scarf like a little old lady, I wore my thickest clothes. I remember, as I was packing, I had a feeling: "well, it's all over, they've locked us up".
This strike was a very serious lesson for us. Mr Janusz Grzelak, who was with us at the time, I think the dean of psychology, said that the strike should be introduced into the curriculum of every generation of students. We had to self-organise completely. We also organised food - cauldrons of soup would arrive and had to be distributed - after all, people were on strike at Stawki Street, at Smyczkowa Street in the East Slavonic philology buildings, in the sociology building at Karowa Street. Soup had to be delivered everywhere. How we did not starve to death - I do not know.
Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy was born in 1962 in Warsaw. She grew up in an intelligentsia family. She remembers from her childhood the searches conducted in their home. Her parents Zbigniew and Zofia Romaszewski were leading activists of the Workers‘ Defense Committee. When she turned 18, she also became involved in the work of the Committee. After beginning her studies in 1980, she immediately became active in the newly formed Independent Students‘ Union, and organized occupation strikes at Warsaw University. On the night of December 12-13, she was interned. She stayed for four months at the Detention Center in Goldap. After her release, she married Jaroslaw Guzy (also a Independent Students‘ Union activist, who was in internment at the time of the wedding). In 1985 she became involved in the activities of the pacifist movement Freedom and Peace. From 1987 to 1990 she stayed in the US, where she undertook doctoral studies. After returning to Poland, already after the political transition, she took up journalistic work. In 2007 she became the director of Bielsat TV, which she is running as of 2022.
