Irena Adamowicz was one of the heads of the Polish scouts’ association. She also worked with the socialist Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hazair.
When the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland, Adamowicz was a social worker for the Warsaw city welfare office. In this function, she oversaw various children’s homes in the Government General from 1941. She used her work trips to transfer messages for Hashomer Hatzair, which was now operating underground. In 1942 she traveled to Wilna (Vilnius) and reported the murders of Jews in the Government General to the ghetto resistance. She then went to Kaunas, Šiauliai, and Białystok, to forge contacts between the local resistance groups in the ghettos. Back in Warsaw, she mediated between the Polish resistance group Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and the Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa). After the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto was suppressed in 1943, Adamowicz sheltered and supported several resistance fighters. In 1944 she took part in the Warsaw uprising.
Irena Adamowicz was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985.