KLOTYLDA RUTKOWSKA

[illegible]

20


Name and surname Klotylda Rutkowska née Kruglińska
Names of parents Paweł and Maria née Chwedorczyk
Date of birth 10 May 1908
Occupation official in the Ministry of Security
Education five years of middle school [gimnazjum]
Place of residence Pułtuska Street 22, flat 6
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

During the German occupation I lived – as I do currently – in Warsaw, at Pułtuska Street 22, flat 6, with my husband Anotoni Stefan Rutkowski (born 13 October 1887 in Warsaw), a retired official of the Public Insurance Company, and our two sons. Our concierge was Zygmunt Książek, who lived in our house with his wife and two children. Today his wife and children live in the same flat. Leonard Piotrowski, a locksmith, also lived on the ground floor of the house with his mother, an old lady, who still lives in the flat.

My husband never said that he was active in an underground organization fighting the Germans. However, I noticed that he often deliberated together with Piotrowski and Książek and that he often left home not saying where he was going. On 8 January 1944 at 3:00 a.m., SS-men came in a car and arrested Książek and Piotrowski.

Later, Piotrowska, the mother of the arrested, told me that her son and Książek had been taken from a list and that they had been arrested on charges of communist activity.

Stefania Hubner n ée Sosienko, the owner of a grocery store on Podskarbińska Street (and also, before the uprising, of a grocery on Szembeka Square), lived in the same house on the ground floor next to Piotrowski and Książek’s flat. Hubner’s husband, who didn’t live with her but often came over, was an SS-man who used to walk around in a yellow blouse with a swastika on a black band and in black trousers. Their daughter, Krystyna, was a Volksdeutsch who walked around with a round badge with a swastika on her jacket lapel, took goods from Meinl on tick, and attended a German school. SS-men stationed on Boremlowska Street often came to the Hubner flat. Everybody said that Krystyna Hubner had dealings with SS-men. After my return to Warsaw in 1945, I heard from Linkowska (now residing at Pułtuska Street 20, has a grocery store) that the Hubner girl [had told] Linkowska a day before the arrest of [my husband?], Książek, and Linkowski, that “she had to put Piotrowski and Rutkowski straight.” The following day, the arrest took place. However, Piotrowska told me that when the SS-men were leading Książek and Piotrowski out, the Hubner girl came out on the stairs and said to them: “Have you been to Rutkowski’s?”

Hubner, the daughter, is currently in Olsztyn, where she is trying to get a job at the post office. The house committee has received an inquiry concerning [her] loyalty. Biedzińska, now deceased, the head of the committee, answered, reporting that the Hubner girl had accused my husband, Piotrowski, and Książek, as a result of which they were executed.

Hubner, the wife, is now in a labor camp near Siedlce. Gonkowska, summoned by Hubner as a witness of her loyalty, has recently testified in her case. I don’t know if Hubner was a Volksdeutsch.

Coming back to the description of the event from 8 January 1944, I am still testifying that at 4:00 a.m. that day, an hour after the arrest of Piotrowski and Książek, eight SS-men in uniforms and one civilian came to our flat. They were all armed and immediately asked about my husband, who was still in bed, they looked under the pillow and told him to get dressed. Before leaving, they took his documents, went outside with him to the car and drove off.

I found out that all three arrested men were taken to Pawiak prison, and then for 11 days, each day, they were transported to the Gestapo HQ at aleja Szucha 25 for examination at 12:00.

I never saw my husband again. On 19 January 1944, as it would appear from a published notice, my husband, Książek, Piotowski, and others, a total of 30 people, were executed by the Germans as hostages in retaliation for wounding an officer of the Extraordinary Service on 12 January 1944 on Jasna Street and a post official on Żelaznej Bramy Square. The notice didn’t say where they were executed. It seems that that there was an execution on Kilińskiego Street that day.

Neither I, nor Piotrowska or Książek, received any official notification about the death of our husbands.

The report was read out.