J.[...] P.[...]

On 17 April 1948, in Kraków. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, court assessor Franciszek Wesely interviewed the person specified below as a witness. The witness testified as follows:

My name is J.[...] née F.[...] P.[...], born on 13 April 19[...] in Lwów, daughter of M.[...] and M.[...], religion Roman Catholic, [...], now store owner in Kraków, resident in Kraków, Wrzesińska Street [...], without obstacles.

The Uprising caught me by surprise at [...] Bagatela Street in Warsaw, where I lived as a subtenant at P.[...] Sz.[...]. It was possible to see the park from the bathroom in that flat, and it was through the little window that P.[...] Sz.[...] watched the mass executions of civilians taking place in the first days of the Uprising. As he told us later, he even heard children crying “mommy, daddy” before the execution. I didn’t see the events with my own eyes because the window was too high, I only heard the volleys.

On 6 August, a Sunday, “ Ukrainians” entered our house in uniforms – grey uniforms, I think – and started searching all the flats. They came into our flat and robbed us of all our valuables, that is my jewelry and the jewelry of Sz.[...] wife, M.[...] and P.[...] Sz.[...] watch.

Still on Sunday, that is on 5 August, two “ Ukrainians” came to our flat and told me to show them the flats on the second floor, and I had to go with them at gunpoint. The Ukrainians threw me on a sofa and raped me, one after the other, at gunpoint. On 6 August, “ Ukrainians” units ordered all the residents to leave the house at Bagatela Street [...] and to go to the Gestapo HQ on aleja Szucha. We had to leave all our possessions and only took a few suitcases with us. However, we never made it to the Gestapo building, only the Gestapo men chose men (P.[...] Sz.[...] among them), announcing that they would still be useful, and we, that is the women and children, were placed in barracks located between the Gestapo building and the casino.

On 7 August, when we were in the barracks, and M.[...] Sz.[...] was holding her 7-year old son, J.[...], on her knees, a “ Ukrainian” shot at the child through a crack in the wall, shooting him in the head, so that his brain spattered all around.

I don’t know the reason for this monstrous murder. I suppose only the fact that the child was a boy. On the night from 10 to 11 August, two “ Ukrainians” came into the barracks, asking where the blond [...] was, who was supposed to go to an important interrogation. I was forced to go with them. They took me to the casino where, in one of the rooms, on straw, they raped me again. I only managed to get away from them in the morning and I walked alone in the space between the casino and the barracks, which put me in danger of being shot by the guards because we were not allowed to be in that area. Luckily, I managed to get back to the barracks, where I learned from M.[...] Sz.[...] that she had also been raped that night.

On 11 August, we, that is the women staying in the barracks, were released and went in the direction of Belwederska Street, holding white handkerchiefs high in the air. From there, after various adventures and horrible experiences in the Pruszków camp, I managed to survive the Warsaw Uprising.

Still in the first days of the Uprising, when we were staying at Bagatela Street [...], I saw through the window how a few soldiers (I cannot tell whether they were Germans or “ Ukrainians”) shot a Polish railwayman in the courtyard of the house. They had dragged him out of the shelter, and he was begging them on his knees to spare his life. He was dressed in a navy blue railway uniform and a railway hat.

I didn’t see any other executions or the burning of corpses of the executed on a pyre. I only saw the bombing of the hospital opposite the church on Chełmska Street by German planes; the sick in the hospital were either killed by bombs or burned alive. The hospital had the markings of the Red Cross, and the bombing happened in daytime. It was on Tuesday, 29 August.

I remember all the dates I have provided precisely, since I have a diary from the period of the uprising, in which I recorded all of my experiences. M.[...] Sz.[...], now residing in Warsaw on Bagatela Street [...], can confirm all the circumstances described by me above.

At that the report was concluded, read out and signed.