HELENA SKIBA

Warsaw, 24 November 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Helena Skiba, née Stępień
Date and place of birth 25 September 1908, Laski, Grójec county
Parents’ names Jan and Zofia, née Małek
Father’s occupation a caretaker in the military
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education elementary school
Occupation house caretaker
Place of residence Warsaw, Wilanowska Street 22, flat 1
Criminal record none

On 19 or 20 September 1944 the Germans – Wehrmacht soldiers accompanied by “Ukrainians” – entered Wilanowska Street. It could have been 8.00 or 9.00 a.m. The residents of our house, that is no. 22, were in the basement. The “Ukrainians” ordered everyone to exit the basements, and set them on fire. At the same time they were evicting people from Wilanowska Street 18. They ordered the people to come out into the courtyard, towards Okrąg Street, through house no. 4. These houses belonged to one owner, and therefore were connected with each other. The courtyard of no. 18 was connected with ours in the same way.

In the courtyard the Germans stopped the men, while the women with children were ordered to leave. The men were executed on the spot. When they were detaining my husband, I lost consciousness, and thus I know nothing about what happened next.

After the Uprising, in the middle of April 1945, the Polish Red Cross conducted an exhumation in this area. Three mass graves were located there: one in the courtyard of the bank house at Okrąg Street 2, another in our courtyard, and a third in the square at Wilanowska Street 16. I heard that the third grave contained more than 150 bodies.

I do not know where these bodies came from. There were 53 bodies in the grave in our courtyard, including that of a woman. My husband, Mikołaj Skiba, brother-in-law Marian Budzik, his friend Mieczysław Tomczyk, Tadeusz Dziadkiewicz and his wife’s brother, Breja, were also buried there. I do not remember any more surnames.

Stefan Pacia, who had a shoemaker’s shop at Wilanowska Street, opposite property no. 22, could provide more details concerning the crime committed in the courtyard of the house at Okrąg Street 2.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.