MARIA IWANICKA

18 December 1945, Warsaw. Investigative Judge Alicja Giermasz interviewed the person named below as a witness. After being advised of the criminal liability for making false statements and of the significance of the oath the witness was sworn and testified as follows.


Name and surname Maria Iwanicka
Date of birth 27 January 1913
Parents’ names Piotr and Helena
Place of residence Szustra Street 18, flat 1, Warsaw
Occupation Polish Red Cross clerk
Religious affiliation Catholic
Criminal record None
At the end of April 1945, in my capacity as a Polish Red Cross clerk, I was present at

the exhumation carried out in the Mokotów Prison grounds on Rakowiecka Street. The exhumation was carried out by the Sanitary Department of the City of Warsaw under the direction of Zofia Prokop. Over 400 dead bodies were recovered from two collective graves. The bodies, mostly male, were well-preserved and most of them (about 300) had prison clothes. Some had bullet wounds to the head and some bore marks of strangulation (their tongues were stuck out). About 40 people were identified. No documents were found.

From those who had witnessed the exhumation by chance I learned that during the first days of August 1944 the Germans took the people from the surrounding houses to the prison in Mokotów and, on 4 and 5 August 1944, killed them in mass executions. I also heard that some prisoners were shot because they tried to escape.

I am unable to give the names of those from whom I received this information.

Chance witnesses also told me that there was a third mass grave in the prison grounds, containing the bodies of about 400 people whom the Germans killed during the first days of August 1944.

I wish to note that the exhumation was attended by Dr. Kazimierz Zakrzewski, Inspector from the sanitary department of the City Board, the Ministry of Health, Special Committee for Combatting Epidemics (Chocimska Street).

The exhumation was also attended by a doctor, but I can’t remember his name.

The exhumation report is to be found at the PCK (Polish Red Cross).

Read out.