MARIANNA BOŻYM

Warsaw, 27 February 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 and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Marianna Bożym née Oleksiak
Date of birth 18 January 1890
Names of parents Bonifacy and Marianna née Szulewska
Occupation owner of the house at Kościuszki Square 15 in Legionowo
Education witness is able to read and write
Place of residence Legionowo, Kościuszki Square 15
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

In 1940, I lived, as I do now, in Legionowo, in my own house, together with my husband Mikołaj Bożym (born in 1888) and my son Józef Bożym (born in 1912). My husband was the owner of a concrete factory in Legionowo, and our son helped him run it. My husband belonged to an underground organization, as he told me himself, but he was careful most of the time. After the murder of the Volksdeutsch Marilke, the mayor of Legionowo, there were arrests from Żerań to Zegrze. Around six hundred people were arrested at that time.

On 24 February 1940, at 11 p.m., I heard pounding on the door; my son opened it, letting in two German soldiers and a Polish police officer named Mazurek. Mazurek asked to see my husband right away, and then the Germans took both my husband and son away. To my question as to why they were taking both, police officer Mazurek only shrugged and did not say that only my husband was wanted. The Germans hesitated for a minute and then they took away both my husband and son.

I went to Dregier, who had pretended to be a Pole before the war, and after the German invasion took up some German office. He was notorious for turning in Jews, who were later executed by the gendarmerie. Dregier had wanted to be a worker in my husband’s factory before the war, he was a concrete worker by profession.

I suspect, without any evidence, that he might have indicated my husband as a hostage in order to take over the factory, which, however, he did not do, since he left in 1943.

When I went to visit him, he led me on with false hopes that my husband and son would not be executed, but didn’t tell me anything specific. I made attempts to have my husband and son set free, I went to the Gestapo at aleja Szucha 5 and other places. Finally, the gendarmerie in Warsaw – I don’t remember exactly on what street, but somewhere further, behind the gendarmerie building at aleja Szucha 5 – issued me the certificate which I am presenting (the witness presented a certificate on a quarter sheet of paper, with the following typewritten text: Gendarmerie Warschau, Warschau den 13 Mai 1942. Bescheinigung per Mariann Bożym von Legionowo wird hiermit auf Wünsch bescheinigt, dass ihr Mann Nikolaj Bozym am 28.2.1940 verstorben ist. Meister d. Gend. Signature illegible. Imprint of a round seal with a swastika inside a rim with the following wording “Gendarmerie Doften, Brief”). I learned from conversations with a county official in Legionowo, Kwieciński, who to date has not returned from [captivity?], that the gendarmerie had been collecting opinions and personal data on the hostages.

To date I have received no specific news of what happened to my husband and son.

The report was read out and signed.