HONORATA OTULAK

22 February 1950, Warsaw. Janusz Gumkowski, 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 Marianna Lenarczyk, née Sujecka
Date and place of birth 18 May 1914, Biały Ług, district of Grójec
Parents’ names Stanisław and Józefa, née Otulak
Father’s occupation farmer
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Catholic
Education 6 grades of elementary school
Occupation janitor
Place of residence Emilii Plater Street 10, flat 1
Criminal record none

From 1937 my husband, Józef Otulak, worked as a janitor in the Warsaw Carpet Factory, which had its offices at Emilii Plater Street 10. On 1 August 1944 at 3 p.m., when everyone, including my husband, had already left the office, three civilians entered the gateway and told me to open the office. They explained that they were insurgents and that they were going to set up a weapons distribution point in the building. I was told to leave. I saw some men come in and out of the office. After about fifteen minutes, three gendarmes, submachine guns in their hands, entered the gateway, asking me whether there were any bandits in the office, for they had received a call from someone reporting this. There were two insurgents standing in the doorway. When asked the same question, they only shrugged their shoulders and gave no answer. The gendarmes left, and came across a group of five men and one woman in the corridor that led from the street to the courtyard. This group included Stefan Obojski, the owner of the workshop of glass devices located in the right wing of our house. Obojski was accompanied by Stefan Kusiński, his cousin, who was carrying a package. Stopped by the Germans, the men were asked what they were carrying. Having learned that it was money from the bank, the Germans ordered the men to raise their hands and led them out into the street. After a while they returned to the first floor. I was taken from my flat, and so was Zbigniew Kowalczyk, who had been staying at my place since fleeing from Sosnowiec two months before. The Germans also detained a few insurgents, but I don’t know how many. When we came out, the five men who had been led out of our house into the street were already lying on the pavement by the office window. We were ordered to lie down on the pavement face downward. Then shooting began between the gendarmes in the street and the insurgents who were in the office. We – myself and the woman who was with the five men – were told to get up and go in the direction of Nowogrodzka Street. As we got to Hoża Street, a number of “Ukrainians” drove up in carts to the house at Emilii Plater Street 10 and, acting on orders from the Germans, stood along Emilii Plater Street up to Hoża Street. There were no civilians in Emilii Plater Street. I don’t know what went on later at the house at Emilii Plater Street.

After the Uprising, when I returned home, I learned that there was a grave in the courtyard of the house at Emilii Plater Street 15. An exhumation carried out in April 1945 by private individuals and the families revealed that the grave contained the corpses of the five men who had been led out of the house at Emilii Plater Street 10 on 1 August 1944 (I have already given the names that I know), as well as Zbigniew Krawczyk and two insurgents. Eight bodies altogether.

I don’t know if there were more insurgents killed at the time. The execution that took place on 1 August 1944 on Emilii Plater Street was witnessed by Józef Otulak, residing at Emilii Plater Street 10, flat 1.

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