JÓZEFA JURKOWSKA

Warsaw, 23 January 1946. Judge Halina Wereńko has interviewed the person mentioned below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the contents of art. 107 and of the importance of the oath, the judge swore the witness on the basis of art. 109 of the code of criminal procedure.

The witness testified as follows:


Name Józefa Jurkowska, martial status spinster
Date of birth 23 December 1892 in village Częstocice, powiat ostrowski
Parents’ names Stanisław and Stanisława née Pytel
Religious affiation Roman Catholic
Occupation nurse in the Karol and Maria hospital
State and nationality Polish
Place of residence Warsaw, Leszno Street 136

At the moment of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising I was in the Karol and Maria hospital, Leszno Street 136 in Warsaw, where I worked as head nurse. In the first days, as the wounded were pouring in, the children were assembled in the S pavilion. In our hospital we had the wounded insurgents, some civilians, and several German soldiers.

On 6 August, a unit of the German gendarmerie arrived in our hospital for the first time. They blocked the exit between 9 and 10 a.m. and began asking the wounded Germans about how they had been treated. Of our medics, it was Doctor Rogalski who spoke to them. The opinion given by the wounded Germans was good, and the gendarmes withdrew. Between 12 and 3 p.m. a unit of more than a dozen “Kalmuks” under German command arrived at the hospital. At that moment I was in the service building, which also served as a shelter for civilians from the surrounding houses. The “Kalmuks” ordered all of us to leave.

I was in a group of about 30 people, the first to be removed from the hospital. It was only later that I found out that there were more groups like ours. We were led along Leszno Street, then Górczewska Street, towards Bem Fort.

Having led us out of the hospital, the “Kalmuks” handed us over to German soldiers (I could not recognise the unit), who brought us to the fort. A German NCO checked our identity cards, released the older people and kept the younger ones. The older group was to head to Jelonki near Warsaw, those who were able to work were sent to forced labour in Germany.

I managed to get through to Jelonki, where I met my sister and Stefan Staszewski, the office manager of our hospital. Later, I found out that the staff and the patients from the surgery ward who were able to walk were led out of the hospital in the second group. The seriously wounded and others, as I was told by Zofia Sekielska (currently living in Warsaw, Działdowska Street 1), were carried out of the hospital and left, on the order of Germans, on the corner of Leszno, Młynarska and Górczewska streets. They vanished without a trace afterwards.

In the second group were nurses Maria Rządkowska and Kazimiera Gierałtowska (both currently living in Warsaw, Kleczewska Street 13).

The third group consisted of the rest of the staff, among others Doctor Bogdanowicz, Wanda Moenke (living at Kleczewska Street 13), Wanda Dąbrowska (resident in Anin) and a number of the children.

Some children were left without any care in the hospital, where the German units took positions, and found themselves in the middle of the fighting. Some of them died from gunfire, others disappeared without a trace. Some hospital workers, like Michał Kostyra and others, stayed on the grounds of the hospital, hiding in the sewer canals.

At that the report was concluded and read out.