HALINA KULIGOWSKA

On 19 April 1969 in Warsaw, the assistant prosecutor for the District Prosecutor’s Office for Warsaw-Żoliborz heard the person named below as a witness, without an oath. After being informed about the criminal liability for false testimony, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Halina Kuligowska née Tyszko
Date and place of birth 3 October 1920, in Warsaw
Parents’ names Czesław, Michalina née Wittemberg
Place of residence Warsaw, Lisowska Street 29, flat 86
Occupation clerical worker – Administracja Domów Mieszkalnych no. 3, Warszawa-Bielany
Criminal record none
Relation to the parties none

From my birth until the Uprising, I lived in the so-called Piaski [Sands]—that is, on Kiełpińska Street 11, and later on Żelazowska Street, but I don’t remember the number at present.

My husband and I belonged to the Robotnicza Partia Polskich Socjalistów (RPPS) [Workers’ Party of Polish Socialists]. [Apart from] myself and [my] husband, Władysław Andrzejewski, this organization included the Balcerzak brothers, Edward Barczyński, who died in Zaborów, [and] Romanowski. I know that during one of the operations during which a German was killed, Romanowski was detained by the Germans. He broke during interrogation and switched sides. He was present at the execution of Stanisława Konczewska and her 19-year-old son Edward, who belonged to the RPPS and kept a gun at home. Romanowski was also present during the search conducted at the Balcerzak’s (residing in the former peasants’ quarters), where their son Zdzisław was hiding.

From the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising to the day of deportation—that is, 10 August 1944—I was living in the area of the Piaski. After about a week, I returned home to pick up some personal belongings. While I was on my property, I heard someone call me by name. It turned out that on the property of my distant cousin Władysława Burzycka, a bunker had been built in which three men were staying—they were Jan Lutomski, who is now dead, his brother-in-law, whose surname I don’t remember at the moment and who currently lives in Młociny, and the third one, I don’t remember his surname either, who lived on the Burzycka estate. When I asked them why they were putting themselves at such risk and didn’t just escape, they didn’t answer me. After picking up some essentials, I returned to Wawrzyszew, where we stopped after the deportation, while these men stayed in the bunker. Later, while in Pruszków, I heard that they were killed in the garden of the Burzycka estate. After the liberation it turned out [...] that they had survived.

The people who were assigned to digging trenches saw corpses lying on the Burzycka estate, and one of the women informed Krawiec’s wife, who now lives in Młociny, that she had seen him dead. Perhaps this wife will be able to indicate the name of the person who informed her about the death of her husband. Whether anyone buried these corpses, I don’t know. After the liberation I completely forgot about all this, only the notice in the ‘Evening Express’ reminded me of the facts described above.

I didn’t hear about any executions that were supposed to have taken place in the area of the Piaski, and in particular, I know nothing about the execution of Pawiak prisoners there, brought in to work in the sawmill located between Żeromskiego and Marymoncka Street. I knew that during the occupation prisoners were brought to the sawmill. I didn’t hear about any operation happening there whereby the prisoners were set free and then shot.

I heard that there was an organization in the [orphanage] on the grounds of Nasz Dom [children’s home], but what it was, I don’t know. I never knew anyone named Adela Miłość. Several underground organizations operated in Żoliborz, including the Home Army, but who belonged to what organization, I don’t know. I don’t know whether Lutowski and the other two men I found in the bunker belonged to some organization.

People were transported by the Germans to dig trenches after the fall of the Uprising, and these bodies came from the period after the fall of the Uprising. When I was there at the end of August 1944, I didn’t see any corpses; I only saw the living people that I mentioned.

When we returned to our property after the liberation, we found a residential bunker that had been dug and furnished by the Germans, where we lived for several months until we received an apartment. Therefore, I figure that some Germans were staying in this area and that the bunker was built after my stay in August. When I came for my personal belongings, my home hadn’t been burnt down yet, and after my return a bunker had already been built in its place. Our house was burned down a few days after my stay.

When our house was burning, Krawiec was still in the bunker, because after the liberation he told my father that when the house was on fire, there were explosions probably caused by explosives that were still stored in it. I didn’t talk to this Krawiec on this topic.

I want to make it clear that when Krawiec called from inside this bunker, where they were hiding, this was on Władysława Burzycka’s estate, not on mine. The bunker in which they were hiding was located at a distance of about 30 m from the spruce tree which grew in Burzycka’s garden, and in whose vicinity some human remains were found during construction works.