IRENA WASILEWSKA

On 23 April 1948 in Kraków, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, acting judge Associate Judge Franciszek Wesely interviewed the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:

My name is Irena Wasilewska, born on 30 August 1921 in Warsaw, daughter of Jan and Paulina, Roman Catholic, a student at the Jagiellonian University, residing in Kraków, Lenartowicza Street 10, flat 1.

The outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising took me by surprise; I was in the flat of my friend, Jadwiga Sadowska, who lived in the Old Town near Freta Street (today I don’t remember the name of the street on which Sadowska lived). I volunteered to work at the dispensary located on the corner of Zamkowy Square and Świętojańska Street. Since, however, the dispensary was captured by the German forces already on the first day, we withdrew a few hours prior to the Market Square of the Old Town. There I worked as a nurse in the dispensary near the Old Market Square. There was one doctor there, but I don’t remember his surname. After more or less two weeks, when the Germans were drawing near the Market Square, the dispensary was disbanded and I reported as a nurse to the main Home Army hospital at Długa Street 7. I was a nurse in this hospital right up until 2 September 1944, that is until it was occupied by the Germans.

Basically, I have no knowledge of how the hospitals were organised in the Old Town during the Warsaw Uprising, nor do I know how many hospitals were operating in the Old Town. I only know that there was a sanitary chief, some doctor, a colonel or lieutenant colonel I think, but I don’t remember his surname. I also know that there was an insurrectionary hospital in St. Hyacinth’s Church, which was evacuated to our hospital at Długa Street 7 after the Germans bombed the church, and another hospital at Freta Street. The hospital at Freta Street was also transferred to the main hospital at Długa Street 7 in the last days of August. The main Home Army hospital at Długa Street 7 occupied the entire building, which if I remember correctly had three or four storeys.

I don’t know how many patients were in this hospital, for I worked in the cellars. These housed some 300 patients. I don’t know how many doctors were employed at Długa Street 7, or indeed what hospital staff worked there. I only know that the patients located in the cellars were cared for by one doctor, three medical students (including one woman), and ten female nurses; sometimes, another doctor would assist privately. In addition, a few Jews brought in soup for the patients.

I have no idea where these Jews came from.

On 2 September the hospital at Długa Street 7 was occupied by the Germans (I didn’t recognise the units and I don’t know who commanded them). Already on the previous day the doctors employed at this hospital had escaped with a part of the wounded into areas under the control of the insurrectionists. The Germans ordered the female nurses to exit the building, after which they went inside and I could hear the sound of shots coming from the cellars. As I later learned, the Germans found grenades under one of the beds and shot the patient who was lying in this bed. I then saw the Germans setting fire to the straw and the wooden cases in the cellar. Smoke started to appear. The Germans then drove us on foot to Zamkowy Square, where a larger group of people had gathered. For this reason I was unable to precisely observe the fire raging at the hospital or the scenes that occurred there.

I don’t know how many patients remained in the hospital. In any case, some 300 were left in the cellars, some more and some less severely wounded, however the Germans did not allow the less severely wounded to be evacuated.

In Zamkowy Square, "Ukrainians" took our watches and treated us with extreme bestiality, hitting the female nurses in the face. I also saw a German beat up and kick a man who was wounded in the head. Next, our entire group was led away to the camp in Pruszków.

Sometime in February 1945 – after Warsaw had been liberated – I was in Praga and met one of the former patients from the hospital at Długa Street 7 (I don’t know his surname or address). This patient remained with the others in the cellar when the Germans set fire to the hospital. He told me how nearly all of the wounded burned to death, or were killed by grenades, for the Germans threw grenades into the cellar through the small windows. Somehow, this man managed to survive for ten days, after which he escaped through one of these windows, for the Germans assumed that everyone had perished and didn’t guard the hospital. I don’t remember the details regarding his escape.

I didn’t witness any other German crimes during the uprising, nor do I know of any other people who could provide information concerning the torching of the hospital at Długa Street, or how hospitals were organised by the insurrectionists.

At this point the report was brought to a close and, after being read out, signed.