Warsaw, 1 July 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisława Świerczewska |
| Date and place of birth | 4 April 1914, Simferopol, Russia |
| Parents’ names | Karol and Józefa Stawska |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Education | vocational school for craftsmen |
| Occupation | seamstress |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Szustra Street 13, flat 5 |
| Criminal record | none |
On 27 September 1944, some time around 2.00 a.m., I entered a sewer in Mokotów with a large group of insurgents, using the manhole at the corner of Szustra and Puławska streets.
We wandered around the sewers for approximately thirteen hours, trying to find an exit in the vicinity of Siekierki, where the manhole was pinned down by rubble, while – as I think – we were being indirectly attacked by the Germans who were raising the water level, and – presumably – throwing in some chemicals, for we experienced a very strong smell. Finally, we went towards the sole available exit from the sewers, in Dworkowa Street, on the German side. A part of our group proceeded to the sewer exit in Dworkowa Street, closer to Belwederska Street, while another part – myself included – decided to leave the sewer through the exit closer to Puławska Street. Near the sewer exit one of the men tried to open the manhole – however, this was being prevented from above, and one of the Germans shouted “Why don’t you suffocate there like rats!”. After a while, however, the manhole was opened, but the first man to leave the sewer was fatally shot by the Germans. Nevertheless, other people started to exit the sewer, walking out towards the Germans. I was one of the last to leave. When I came out I was searched; my briefcase was taken and I was ordered to kneel next to the other women behind the manhole, on the side of odd-numbered houses in Dworkowa Street, with a house behind us, while the insurgents, in army camouflage and with their armbands, were kneeling on the other side of the roadway, more or less in front of the clay pits. At a guess there were more than one hundred insurgents, however I cannot provide the exact number; there were more or less fifteen of us women, but the Germans added three wounded men – dressed in civilian clothes – to our group. A few SS-men were milling around the manhole; they performed the searches and guarded us. Near the same manhole, two to three meters away from the insurgents, there lay a stash of insurgent weaponry, mainly pistols, which had been seized during the searches. Suddenly, I heard the sound of explosions – the Germans ordered us to fall to the ground, and did so themselves. At nearly the same moment, immediately after the detonation, I heard a voice calling from the group of insurgents: “Are we going to let ourselves be slaughtered like lambs?” I heard some of the insurgents get to their feet; the German who was lying next to me also got up, while a group of Germans who just a moment before had driven up in two trucks to the house at Dworkowa Street rushed out of the gate. Salvos were fired. After a while it quieted down, and only individual shots rang out. I continued to lie on the ground, but I saw that the insurgents had been killed. The individual shots were being fired by SS-men, who were walking around them and finishing off those who showed any sign of life.
After a while one of the SS-men ordered us women and the three men in our group to get up, and proceeded to give a speech of sorts, which was translated by one of the Germans. The gist of it was thus: “What you saw here, you are to keep to yourselves, you are not allowed to tell anyone about it. These bandits jumped us, and we acted in self-defense. You will go to perform work”. We were arranged in fours – in fact, we were allowed to take some clothes from the pile of articles taken during the searches – and led away in the direction of south Mokotów. Our destination might have been the racetrack, but I am not certain, for after the events that took place on Dworkowa Street on 27 September at around 4.00 p.m. I was only partially conscious. In Służewiec we were attached to the civilians and transported together with them on the narrow-gauge train to Pruszków, from where I was deported to Nuremberg for labor.
At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.