The “Little Insurgent” monument, which is located in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is only 150 cm tall, but it arouses huge emotions. Whom does it commemorate?

It depicts a boy of a few years old holding a submachine gun, dressed in an oversized coat and German stahlhelm, and wearing shoes of an ill-fitting size. His helmet bears the emblem of Poland depicting an eagle and red and white colours. The monument displays a plaque with the following text:  “Warsaw children, we will go into battle, for every stone of yours, Capital, we will give you our blood”. This is a fragment of a very popular song titled “Warsaw Children”.

The monument to the “Little Insurgent” was erected on 1 October 1983 in Warsaw.  It was unveiled by Jerzy Świderski a.k.a. “Lubisz”, who as a 14-year-old served as a Home Army liaison officer in the “Gustaw ” battalion (Warsaw North-Wachnowski Group) during the Warsaw Uprising – the largest anti-German, military uprising of World War II.

The author of the monument is the Polish artist Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz (1919-2005). He created the first version of the monument as early as 1946, using plaster and a metal frame. This work was created for a competition.

The small monument commemorates all the Polish children and teenagers who took part in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Some of them were carrying messages or dressing wounds. Others fought the Germans with weapons in hand.

The command of the Polish Home Army, the largest underground army in Europe during the Second World War, did everything it could to prevent children from fighting in the Rising. They were not accepted into the ranks, but these stubbornly returned after some time. Other teenagers falsified their age to join insurgent groups and fight against the Germans. Discovering such falsification during wartime was difficult. Sometimes, for some children, the safer option was to stay at the back of a unit than to remain in a city engulfed by war, bombing and chaos.

How to find the memorial?

To find it, one must reach the city walls of the Old Town on Podwale Street in Warsaw. The monument stands at the junction of this street with Wąski Dunaj Street.