FRANCISZKA DRAC

Warsaw, 7 December 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 Franciszka Drac
Date and place of birth 8 October 1912, Warsaw
Parents’ names Józef and Stanisława, née Olszewska
Father’s occupation hospital attendant
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation office worker
Place of residence Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62, flat 23
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62. Around 10 August 1944 this area was occupied by the Germans. A temporary hospital for both insurgents and civilians had been set up at the old people’s home. Initially, the Germans were favorably inclined towards those residing in the old people’s home. Presumably they did not even know that there were wounded men lying amongst the elderly. A great many people who had been evicted from nearby houses lived in the basement corridors. The Germans frequently took civilians to perform work; men for digging pits and erecting barricades, and the women for carrying the wounded.

On 21 August at around 5.00 a.m. a detachment of SS-men arrived (I am unable to give their number). They had been sent specifically to this area, for they were not the Wehrmacht soldiers who had previously occupied it. They started dragging out the men who resided in our house and grouping them in the basement corridor, next to the figure of the Mother of God. The room in which I lived together with my mother, Stanisława, and sisters Janina and Stanisława, was located at the end of the corridor, right next to the figure. Through the closed door I heard how one of the Sisters of Charity called out some of men who were standing by the figure. The Germans did not raise any objections. In this way the group of men decreased in number to around 14. They were led out through the chapel into Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. We heard shots near the chapel.

I later learned from Eugenia Kujawa, who worked for the Germans as an interpreter, that the men who had been led out had been shot. I even remember her words, which I quote: “Miss, your father had to be shot, for bandits were shooting at the Germans from your roof”. On that day, 21 August, I was summoned to Henryk Duda (I do not know where he resides), who had been wounded in the knee and was lying on the floor; he told me that he knew that my father had been killed by Piotrowicz and that if he were to survive, he would take care of the matter personally – otherwise I should report to a Captain Niedźwiedzki from the electric power station.

Around 30 September the Germans evicted all of the residents of our house. The sick were taken on carts to the Wolski Hospital, while the healthy were led to a church in the Wola district, from where they were transported to the camp in Pruszków. I left Warsaw for Grodzisk with the transport of the sick; the sick were left along the way in various hospitals.

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