SABINA RUDZIŃSKA

In Warsaw, on 5 February 1946, judge Stanisław Rybiński of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the below-mentioned as a witness. After advising the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, and of the meaning of the oath, the judge took her oath in accordance with Article 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, following which the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Sabina Rudzińska
Date of birth 27 March 1916
Parents’ first names Bronisław and Bronisława
Occupation Employee of Cukiernia Szwajcarska [Swiss Confectioner’s] in Warsaw
Education Seven classes of elementary school
Place of residence Warsaw, Prądzyńskiego Street 17
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record None

In 1944, I lived under the same [address] no. 17 on Prądzyńskiego Street, together with my husband Jan, who was then 37 years old, and two children – Bogdan, eighteen months old, and Marek, three months old. My husband’s mother Anna, 67 years old, was also living with us. My husband was a painter entrepreneur. Apart from that, we ran a fruit shop together.

During the outbreak of the Uprising on 1 August 1944, my husband was at home. He didn’t take part in the Uprising. At the start of the Uprising, the battles were fought far away from us. We lived at the edge of Wola. Despite that, on 2 August at 4.00 p.m., three Germans wearing German railway uniforms, and armed with rifles, entered. My husband was holding our youngest son in his hand. One of the Germans tore the baby from my husband’s arms, threw him on the floor, and then shouted at my husband: “Heran!” The Germans led him out into the courtyard, following which they began leading other men from the neighboring flats out there.

At the same time, as they led my husband out of our home, the Germans also took my handbag that was lying on the couch; all of my jewelry was in it: a gold watch, two gold rings – one with a diamond, the other with a ruby, gold earrings and about 20,000 zlotys in cash.

After arresting my husband and six other men, the Germans took them to the railways. Among the arrested men were: Jerzy Wojcieszak, Waldemar Kostrzewa, and Leopold and Zdzisław Kudłacki (father and son). They were all tenants in our building. They also took Mieczysław Baran, residing in Wola (I don’t know his exact address), who came to my husband once and was arrested in the corridor of our building. The seventh arrestee was Michał Sowiński, residing at Prądzyńskiego Street 19. This last one was the oldest of the men gathered. He was over 60 years old. The youngest was 17-year-old Zdzisław Kudłacki. His father, Leopold, was around 40 years old. Wojcieszak was 18 years old, and Kostrzewa – 19 years old. Once my husband and all of his companions had been led out, they were led towards the railway tracks. I managed to take my husband’s coat out to him in the courtyard. I never saw my husband alive again.

The next morning, that is on 3 August, one railway man, a Pole, came to us and said that seven men lay shot dead on the railway tracks near Armatna Street. None of us women left in the building could go out to see who had been shot because of the battles being fought in the vicinity. We sat there like that in our flat with the children for four weeks. It was only in the last days of August, I can’t remember the exact date, that the Germans came and ordered us to vacate the flat. My husband’s mother and I took the children and a few things, and walked out of the building. We were marched to Pruszków.

I didn’t see how the Germans killed and burned masses of people during the Uprising. I only heard about it from various people’s tales. From Pruszków, we made our way to Boża Wola in the Błonie district, and we returned to Warsaw in late January last year, 1945. We couldn’t go back to our home, because after driving us out, the Germans had burned it – not in the fighting, as there were no battles near it; employees of the gasworks opposite the building told us that the Germans had deliberately burned it, without any reason. This can be asserted by the witness Otulak (I can’t remember his first name), living at the gasworks on our street.

We took up residence in our building’s annex that hadn’t burned down. At the spot where we’d been told the Germans had shot dead seven men, we found the last seven corpses of men, under a light covering of earth. After brushing the earth away, I and other women found the corpses of my husband and his six companions. I didn’t take a closer look at my husband’s shot wounds, but I have the impression that he was wounded in the head. I buried my husband in the cemetery in Wola. Both he and those who accompanied him were killed as they were taken, in their clothes. I don’t know the names of the Germans who took my husband and his companions from their homes. Irena Wójciszek, Jerzy’s mother, lives by the packing room. I don’t know any other addresses.

The report was read out.