Łódź, 19 April 1948. Investigating Judge S. Krzyżanowska heard the person named below as a witness. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Danuta Karczewska |
| Age | 23 years old |
| Parents’ names | Zygmunt and Janina |
| Place of residence | Łódź, Sterlinga Street 1/3 |
| Occupation | nurse |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
At the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, I was in the Old Town; following that, I was in Powiśle, and by 7 August 1944 I was staying at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 60. The odd-numbered side of the street was already on fire. On the morning of 7 August, the Germans were demolishing the gates of the neighboring houses with grenades and calling on the populace to leave their flats. This must have been happening in the nearby streets (Bednarska Street, Mariensztat Street), as there were people from Powiśle in the crowd flocking to Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. These people were ordered to group themselves along the square at Bednarska Street – the men and the women separately. At that time, a tank, which was situated on Krakowskie Przedmieście Street at the end of Bednarska Street, was shelling Praga.
I heard of instances of robbery being committed by the troops, and I also heard that on Bednarska Street some people who were running away (along Bednarska Street) were shot. That entire crowd was being herded into the building of the seminary. It was the first group of evacuees that was brought there. In the seminary I ran accross Krystyna Wilkowska, who had happened to be in that building when the Uprising broke out. The first day was peaceful. Some wounded people, taken by the civilians, were also brought to the seminary.
On 8 August, a few priests and I were ordered by the Germans to take stretchers and go and collect the corpses. We collected bodies of the people killed in the area from Ossolińskich Street to Wende’s Pharmacy. The immediate vicinity, the odd-numbered side of the street, was already burned out, and the even-numbered side had just begun to burn. When I was near Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 60, I saw the lower part of a townhouse being doused with some liquid and some objects, probably grenades – for I saw smoke and heard explosions – being thrown through the windows. Apart from the above-mentioned group of priests, another group of men was selected to dig ditches in the square by the Mickiewicz monument. On 8 August, the first group of men, some 50 of them, was taken from the seminary in the direction of Piłsudski Square. I heard that these men never returned and went missing.
I heard from the priests in the seminary that one of the priests who had been in the group of men digging ditches by the Mickiewicz monument was also taken with that group of 50 men, and never returned as well.
I would like to add that the bodies of the people who had been killed, which we collected in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, were completely pulverized, probably by tanks, such that it was hardly possible to lift them up. We took them on sheets. They were in such a condition that it would have been impossible to identify them or find any identity papers on them.
I don’t know any details pertaining to the evacuation of the odd-numbered side of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, but I have an impression that there wasn’t any organized group evacuation there, as was the case with the even-numbered side. It is possible, though, that the people were evacuated onto Kozia Street.
I heard from my mother that she had seen that on the odd-numbered side of the street, the insurgents were still fighting back even though their houses had already been burnt.
The civilians remained in the seminary until the end of the Uprising, that is, until the end of September. However, the group decreased in number – at first people would leave voluntarily, due to hunger and water shortages, and then some were taken by the Germans in groups in the direction of Królewska Street. The army provided us with contradictory information: we heard about Pruszków, evacuations to Berlin, etc. Whenever a group of people was being led out by force, it was obviously conducted in a very brutal manner, but I didn’t hear about anyone being murdered in the process.
In the middle of August, the so-called Deanery came under fire, and subsequently burned from the shelling. It was the same with the seminary, but it was eventually saved. At first, the building of the seminary was guarded by two blue policemen, but later Krystyna Wilkowska and I went to the German authorities to request assistance, since the soldiers who were stationed in the building of the former Presidium of the Council of Ministers had come to the seminary several times to take away women, who upon returning told us that they were not only used for labor in the kitchen or laundry, but that some were also raped.
Wearing white hospital gowns and carrying a small emblem of the Red Cross, we left the seminary, crossed Piłsudkiego Square (there were troops in the square on the side of the rubble of the former Ossolińskich Street) and reached the staff headquarters, that is, entering the building on the right side of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were let in immediately and led to some office, where we spoke with the adjutant of the general. The general was absent. We asked for a pass to St. Roch’s Hospital and for a guard to be set up by the seminary, due to the fact that we were being assaulted by the SS units quartered in the houses on Krakowskie Przedmieście Street on the side of Bednarska Street. (These were, by the way, “Ukrainians”, but we kept mum about it). The adjutant told us to come back at 3.00 p.m. to get an answer. However, we didn’t go back to the headquarters because the priests were very much opposed to the idea. Some time after 3.00 p.m., the general himself arrived. I later heard that he had spoken with the priests and I saw him inspect the seminary premises – I saw him visiting the dispensary. One of the priests later said that the general had promised to set up a sentry post and to issue us the pass. Indeed, the sentry post was set up, and afterwards the seminary was somehow less frequently bothered by the “Ukrainians”.
I have to add here that from the first day of my stay in the seminary, due to the fact that wounded people were arriving in the seminary all the time, we used to go to St. Roch’s Hospital almost every other day, either to transport the wounded or bring sterile materials. We needed the pass because we were being stopped by the crew of the bunker by the University of Warsaw.
During this entire time, beginning on 7 August, new groups of civilians were passing by the seminary. Generally they were forbidden to make stops, but some wounded people, having obtained permission from the escorting soldiers, would come to the seminary. After one such group had marched by I saw three corpses in the gate of the house at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 60. Judging by their injuries and the placement of the bodies, they must have been killed on that spot. Similarly, in other gates I saw the bodies of people who had been killed with small arms. We learned from the wounded people who had made it through from the Old Town that the Uprising had fallen. Later on, from the windows of the seminary and as we walked down the street, we saw large groups of people being marched along Krakowskie Przedmieście Street.
I cannot give the exact dates when these groups were being marched, or the day on which the evacuation had begun. These groups were guarded, but we were allowed to give them water. Civilian groups comprised both men and women.
In the meantime, the maternity hospital from Karowa Street was evacuated. This happened thanks to the intervention of Mrs. Mroczek, who obtained two cars from the Germans from the Deutsches Haus and used them to transport the lying-in women and babies out of Warsaw.
We received a pass from a major and an escort to the Old Town. This happened only after the transports of civilians had stopped arriving. We received 25 stretchers. There were some 45 people in the column. Having left the seminary, we passed by the cathedral and crossed Podwale, which was all rubble. There were “Ukrainians” in the gates, and they let us go only after we produced our passes. The entire column reached the hospital at Długa Street 7 without disturbance. There we noticed two people sitting among the ruins of the first floor. We took them down, and went into the basements, from where we could hear the groaning of the sick. We found some 40 people alive there and many more bodies. These basements were on the side of Długa Street.
We didn’t notice any signs of the basements having been set on fire. Similarly I didn’t notice any people among the dead or the wounded who had been shot.
There were many corpses in the courtyard and in the gate of the ministry, on the side of Długa Street. Among those who had been killed were the wounded and the hospital personnel, whom we recognized by their gowns. There were also children among those killed. We also pulled out a few people from under the corpses in the courtyard. They were still alive. We took all those who still lived to the seminary. When, on the next day, the sanitary column went to the hospital once again, they saw that the bodies lying in the courtyard were half-charred, and petrol could be smelled in the air. Apparently, the bodies had been doused with petrol before being burnt.
I cannot submit the surnames of the people from the hospital who survived. I don’t think there was another excursion to the Old Town on the night from 4 to 5 [September]. On 4 September the team returned late in the evening, and so nobody went to the hospital that night. On the following morning, on 5 September, we took the rest of the wounded people from the ministry and transported them to the seminary, and during the third round, having been told by the sick that a large group of people was to be found on Freta Street, we went to that location.
We collected the wounded from that area three times. Since everything was in rubble, it is hard to say from which street we took these wounded people. It was in the close vicinity of St. Hyacinth’s Church. I am unable to give a more accurate description.
I heard from the wounded that the execution of a certain group of men had taken place in that area, but I don’t know whether these were the wounded, insurgents or civilians. One of the wounded people also told me that we needed to take the young people away as quickly as possible, as the Ukrainian soldiers threatened that they would execute everyone. These soldiers (“Ukrainians”) were commanded by some major.
In total, we made two excursions to Długa Street, and we went three times to Freta, Mostowa, and Stara streets: the first time on 5 September, and later during the days that followed. Today I cannot provide the exact dates.
In the area of Freta, Mostowa and Stara streets we collected the wounded who were lying outside. Only some time later did we learn from the wounded in the seminary that there were also sick people in the ruins of St. Hyacinth’s Church. One more team went to that location, but we didn’t find any wounded people. We found some sterile materials in the ruins of some dispensary.
I remember the following names: Boguckis, a Polish Radio presenter and his wife, the Łapińskis (Łapińska works in the university pharmacy), Mykina, the sons of the organist from the Carmelite Church, Krystyna Makin. From among the people gathered in the Old Town, the more seriously ill were transported to St. Roch’s Hospital. I met the following doctors in that hospital: Dr. Wiechno, then a head of the hospital, Jasiński from Łódź, and Father Kamiński.
The civilians were gradually evacuated from the premises of the seminary, and by the end of September there were only wounded people and personnel there. Despite the sentry post on the side of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, the “Ukrainians” who were stationed on the side of Bednarska Street kept coming to the seminary, but there weren’t any major incidents except for one, that is, when they killed two wounded people. I don’t remember their surnames; they were entered into the record that we kept and entrusted by Krystyna Wilkowska, upon leaving, into the hands of Father Jakubiec.
I don’t remember the period of time during which it occurred, but there wasn’t any fighting going on in the district up to Aleje Jerozolimskie. We made it through to Kopernika Street, and then to the place where the sick people from the Social Insurance hospital were. I don’t remember the exact location, but it was an area intended for allotments. Our team comprised, among others, seminary students by the surname of Miszta. We found a group of wounded and sick people in the rubble and allotments between Czerniakowska Street and Poniatowskiego Bridge. We were told that these were the sick from the burnt-down Social Insurance hospital. We took some several dozen people from there. I would like to emphasize that our team numbered up to 40 people.
I would also like to add that before we went to Powiśle, we reached Drewniana Street. The wounded – there were eleven of them I think – lay there in a small basement, looked after by a doctor. I also recall that once a German from the sentry post notified us that there was the body of some man in the basement at Bednarska Street 23. When we went there we found the bodies of three women. Judging by the placement of the bodies and their clothes, these women must have been raped and then slaughtered. We found some identity papers on one of them and handed them over – as we did with others – to Father Jakubiec.
I don’t recall Wilkowska ever telling me that, thanks to some Alsatian officer, she had stopped an execution at the corner of Mostowa and Stara streets. I don’t think we ever took any group of wounded people with us during the march (in the column).