JULIA ZARĘBSKA

Warsaw, 10 March 1950. Trainee Judge Irena Skonieczna, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Forename and surname Julia Zarębska, née Adamska
Date and place of birth 14 June 1878, Kobiele Radomskie
Names of parents Józef and Apolonia, née Kosińska
Father’s occupation restaurant owner
State affiliation Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education elementary school
Occupation office worker (lives with her daughter)
Place of residence Waszyngtona Street 136, flat 14
Criminal record none

Throughout the Uprising and right until the arrival of Soviet forces, I stayed at the house of my son-in-law, Feliks Zawadzki, at aleja Waszyngtona 136. Our area was completely peaceful throughout this time. German SS-men (I recognized their uniforms, they had death’s heads insignia on their caps) were stationed in the red house at the corner of Wiatraczna and Grochowska streets. They had set up underground telephone lines in the basements of our house. From time to time we could hear their conversations.

They did not commit any crimes in our area during the Uprising. The treated the population relatively well. We were allowed to move around the city, of course, only until curfew, i.e. 7.00 p.m..

On 28 August 1944, the Germans started taking the men from our area. At Grenadierów Street they set up an assembly point for people living between aleja Waszyngtona and the fields, which are in the southern part of Grochów. Seventeen men came out of our house. The Germans checked the houses to see if no one had hidden themselves. The men were led from the assembly point to the tracks and taken west in cattle wagons. My son-in-law was also deported.

Many of these men failed to return after the Uprising. They died in German camps. My son- in-law also died, in Mauthausen, of hemorrhagic intestinal effusion.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.