ANNA GLIŃSKA

Warsaw, 18 October 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Anna Glińska, née Utryńska
Date and place of birth 9 July 1921, Warsaw
Parents’ names Jadwiga, née Zadroga, and Michał
Father’s profession office worker
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation office worker
Place of residence Warsaw, Bartoszewicza Street 5, flat 24
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 66. On 11 August 1944, I was in the IF factory at Mariensztat Street. On 4 August the Germans broke down the gate and entered the factory premises. They trained a machine gun on all of the men, and led the women to a factory – I do not remember which one – at Mariensztat Square. There they had gathered people from all around Mariensztat, in terrible conditions, with no food.

After two days I and “Genia” Kurpiel, the wife of an IF employee, together with her children, managed to return to the factory in order to find out what had happened to our husbands. The Germans did not execute the men only thanks to the intervention of one of the gentlemen, who had an excellent knowledge of German. We remained in the basements of the IF factory until 15 August, or perhaps a few days less. On that day we realized that there were Germans in the courtyard of the factory. We therefore left our hiding place, fearing that if they found us there, all of us would most certainly have been be shot.

Our group, eight strong, was led to Bednarska Street. We stayed there for one night. While in Bednarska Street at the German quarters, I noticed Eugenia Kujawa, who was wounded in the leg. Considering the difficult conditions of the Uprising, she was very neatly dressed.

On the second day our group, still eight strong, proceeded to the Caritas building at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62. From there the men – among them my husband, Edmund Badowski, Mr. Kurpiel, and a young IF employee, maybe 17 years old, who had exited the factory basementtogether with us – were taken for various types of work, such as the removal of bodies from Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, the construction of bunkers, etc. On one occasion my husband was taken to bury the bodies of victims of the execution carried out on 11 August at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 66. He informed me that he had buried our friends from the IF factory. These were Zbigniew Potrzebowski, Latoszek, Wiśniewski – a caretaker, Nowicki – the proprietor of a shop with devotional items, Eugeniusz Rozum, Stefan Kowalczyk and Edmund Kalinko, that is seven men.

On 20 or 21 August at 5.00 a.m. the SS-men entered the Caritas premises. They led all of the men, some 15 in total, and among them my husband, to a small church. Next we heard shots in the street.

Some time later the German soldiers who used to take our men to work every day burst into the Caritas premises. They informed us that the men who had been led away had been executed. Stanisław Pazyra, an IF employee, was the sole survivor; he turned up at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62 out of nowhere. He was the sole eye-witness of the execution, since he had been sitting in the church the whole time.

I do not know where Pazyra currently resides. He is presently 30 years old. Allegedly, he lives somewhere in Żoliborz, near the viaduct.

Another eye-witness of the execution was Eugenia Kujawa, who after the Uprising took up residence at Radna Street; she worked at the Ministry of Industry, somewhere at Wilcza, Hoża or Wspólna Street.

I remained in the Caritas building at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62. During this period all of the women were regularly taken to perform difficult and dangerous work, such as collecting dead and wounded Germans while under constant fire, or transporting ammunition.

On 30 August 1944 I and my friend, “Nalka” Krupińska (I do not know her address), managed to escape to Praga.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.