Wiesława Szleszyńska, resident in Anin at VIII Poprzeczna Street 13, the “Wioletta” villa
On 26 February 1942, she was awoken by a banging on the door. When she opened the door, three agents and a German officer entered the flat. They inquired after Kopaliński, who lived nearby.
The loud conversation forewarned Kopaliński, and when the Germans next knocked on his door, he immediately opened fire on them and – making use of the confusion – ran out of the house.
She then saw how Kopalińska was beaten with an electric torch and a bulletproof shield, and pulled by her hair. She also witnessed Kopalińska being robbed of her watch and ring – a keepsake after her grandmother. Finally, she saw one of the agents shooting Kopalińska dead with a pistol.
She herself declared that Kopalińska, the widow of a Polish Army colonel, was a model Polish woman.
Wiesława Szleszyńska and her husband, Edward, were arrested and taken to Daniłowiczowska Street, where she was detained for a dozen or so days.
In the course of her interrogation Szleszyńska was beaten and otherwise maltreated.
While she was being arrested on 26 February 1942, she did not see any uniformed Polish policemen nearby. She thinks that the agents were both Germans and Poles. She bases her assumption on the fact that when Kopalińska was being beaten, they hurled abuse at her in Polish, but between themselves they talked in German.
When during the execution held on 29 April 1942 Szleszyńska tried to walk out of the gate, a shot was fired off in her direction.
She observed the execution from a window in her house.
She recalls how Rajmund Górski was deceived – they told him that he was being released, but when he bowed and started to walk away, they shot him in the back of the head.
She knew that Kopaliński and Górski were members of some organization because they themselves had told her. On a number of occasions she saw Kopaliński dressed up in a policeman’s uniform.
She added that when she was being released, she was instructed to say that the arrestees were regular bandits.