JÓZEFA RÓŻYCKA

Warsaw, 13 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 Józefa Aniela Różycka
Date and place of birth 19 March 1895 in Warsaw
Parents’ names Jan and Katarzyna, née Ratkowska
Father’s profession dairy owner
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation resides with her children
Place of residence Warsaw, Idźkowskiego Street 4, flat 11
Criminal record none

During the Uprising, until 18 September 1944, I stayed in the shelter in the house at Idźkowskiego Street 4. The area of our house was occupied by the insurgents. Towards the end of my period of stay in the shelter I saw practically none of them.

On 18 September our house was occupied by the Germans. I heard that on that day there were a few wounded insurgents in our house. The Germans started throwing grenades at our house. At that point the residents, gathered in the shelter, started to shout that they are surrendering and thereafter proceeded to walk out into the street. The Germans stood in the staircase in double file, their rifles trained on us. In the street, the shooting was incessant. They were shooting at the exiting civilians.

I came out with my arms raised. A German shot me in the leg and after a few steps I fell. I was then shot in my right arm. There were a few dead bodies beside me, and also my daughter, completely unscathed. Some civilian standing next to a German in Zagórna Street started nodding at me and my daughter. I got up with my daughter’s assistance and together with the other surviving residents of Idźkowskiego Street we walked to the school at Zagórna Street 9. From there the healthy people, and thus my daughters too, were sent to Pruszków.

I stayed for four days at the insurgent hospital set up at this school. Throughout this time I frequently heard rifle volleys near the school. I was told that the Germans were killing people.

Thus upon the request of my son-in-law, who had been detained by the Germans and forced to work as an interpreter, I was transferred to the hospital set up in the Citroen factory, to a cellar were potatoes used to be stored, at Czerniakowska Street, on the corner of Górnośląska Street. There the Polish doctors – I do not now remember their surnames, maybe Ms Mrowiec (resident at Śniegocka Street 10) will know them, for she worked at the Citroen factory as a nurse throughout the hospital’s existence – amputated my right arm.

On around 25 September the Germans evacuated the entire hospital. They ordered the seriously wounded to be carried out into the courtyard of the facility. The rest of the populace left. The seriously ill, myself among them, were deprived of any care or food for two days. Thereafter the Germans came round with the medical personnel from the Child Jesus Hospital and took us to some place on aleja Szucha, but I was unable to determine whether or not this was the Ujazdowski Hospital. From there in the evening we were transported to the Child Jesus Hospital. I remained there until 25 October, that is until the evacuation of the hospital.

I do not know what happened with the wounded from the hospital in the school at Zagórna Street 9.

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