Warsaw, 5 June 1946. Deputy Prosecutor Zofia Rudziewicz interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Ernestyna Bojemska née Marynger |
Date of birth | 22 October 1898 |
Names of parents | Katarzyna and Alojzy |
Place of residence | Warsaw, Śniadeckich Street 23, flat 18 |
Occupation | clerk at the Social Construction Enterprise in Warsaw [SPB – Społeczne Przedsiębiorstwo Budowlane] |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Criminal Record | none |
Education | graduate of an eight-grade gymnasium |
I am the widow of a professor of the Warsaw Polytechnic, Aleksander Bojemski. After the Germans entered Warsaw, lectures at the university did not take place, the professors were not paid their salaries and living conditions became difficult. We provided for ourselves by selling what valuable items we had; apart from that I started to make homespun, and my older daughter started sewing clothes. The Germans did not allow professors to do academic work, which was very painful for my husband. When the State Higher Technical School [Wyższa Szkoła Techniczna] was opened in the university building, my husband became a professor there.
When the uprising broke out, our entire family (my husband, myself, and our daughter) were in the house at Rakowiecka Street 39. Our flat was located opposite the Main School of Rural Economy [Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego] and a troop of SS-Polizei under the command of Obersturmführer Patz was stationed nearby. At the beginning of the uprising, this section of Rakowiecka Street was perfectly peaceful. No shots were fired from our house and no suspicious persons were hiding in it.
On 4 August 1944, around noon, SS men from the nearby barracks burst into our house and the neighboring houses. They took all the men over sixteen and marched them to the barracks; women were left alone. After a few hours the men came back, saying that my husband, who was then 58, would remain. Every couple of hours, a few men were gradually released. In the end everyone came back, except for my husband. The returning men told me that after the examination of identity papers, my husband was taken away to Mokotów prison, whence he never came back. I went to the SS-Polizei Obersturmführer, asking where my husband was, to which he replied that the Germans were exterminating the intelligentsia, since they were the ones who had provoked the uprising.
I went to Patz a few times, he eventually sent me to the Gestapo on aleja Szucha. My present impression is that Patz wanted to get rid of me, since the way to aleja Szucha was very dangerous, this being 5 August 1944. Despite the danger, I went to aleja Szucha with my daughter; the guards did not let me through to the Gestapo and ordered us to hurry back home. All this time we were under fire.
When we returned to Rakowiecka Street at 4 p.m., I discovered that our house at number 39a was in flames and that houses further ahead were on fire as well. Soldiers were standing all around, not letting anyone through. The neighbors told us that the Germans had set the house on fire, having first removed the residents, not allowing anyone to take anything.
And so within the space of two days I lost my husband and all of my property. In my opinion the person responsible for this is Fischer, since he was the head of the civilian and military authorities.