Warsaw, 19 January 1946, [Judge] Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Feliksa Bałęda, née Krysiak |
| Age | 52 |
| Names of parents | Józef and Maria |
| Place of residence | Noakowskiego Street 12, flat 35 |
| Occupation | paramedic |
| Employed | at the District Hospital, 6 Sierpnia Street |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
In 1925, I took in my birth sister’s Zofia Zarzycka’s 4-year-old son, Stefan Zarzycki. I became attached to the boy as it he were my own son, all the more so because he was an exceptionally good and gifted child. My fosterling, whom I considered as a son, received a Small Matura certificate and enrolled at the land surveyor school at Koszykowa Street 51 or 54 during the war, so after 1939. Stefan, as far as I know, did not belong to any underground organization.
On 12 November 1943, he left home for the Wawelberg School to meet with a professor. Before leaving, he changed his clothes and left his school identity card in his suit by mistake. He never returned home.
That day, around 7 p.m., the Germans blocked Noakowskiego Street and organized a round-up. After the evening round-up, the housekeeper, Chmielewski – I do not know his current whereabouts – notified me that the Germans had stopped my foster son, Żużulewicz (I do not know his first name), the caretaker’s brother, and some other person at the entrance to our house. They inspected everyone, apparently without any results because a home inspection did not follow. My son, I presume, was arrested because he forgot to take his school identity card with him.
On 14 November, I saw the name and surname of my son on a list of hostages to be executed if, as the notice said, there were any attempts to sabotage or kill Germans by Poles. My son was at Pawiak prison at the time. My husband checked this through a friend who worked there.
On 17 November, they accepted a food package for Stefan at the prison office. On the same day, notices appeared throughout the city about the execution of 40 people, including my son’s surname and age. The prison returned the package to me after a week. I have learned from other people that on 17 November 1943, there were two executions; one on the embankment by the Warsaw West station, the other on Białołęcka Street.
I do not know where my dear son was executed. Stanisław Smolik told me about the execution, as he knew of its details from a railwayman (name unknown), who was an eye-witness of it.
The family of Żużulewicz, it seems, were all killed in the Uprising. Wojciechowski, whose sister lived at Noakowskiego Street 10, was executed along with my son.
After [reading] the notice about my son’s execution, I went to the Gestapo office at aleja Szucha 25 and, right after the execution, I was let in and given a death certificate in German saying that my son had “died.” Smolik and Wojeciechowska received the same certificate, stating that their children had died.
This certificate was destroyed by fire together with my possessions during the Uprising.
I talked with a Gestapo man in the office and showed him my son’s school identity card. He said that if my son had had this card with him, he would not have been executed.
The report was read out.