JULIA KOCISZEWSKA

Warsaw, 6 April 1950. Judge [no surname of the interviewer], 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 Kociszewska née Strzeszewska
Date and place of birth 17 September 1907, Sobienie Biskupie, Garwolin county
Names of parents Piotr and Agnieszka née Niziołek
State affiliation Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary trade school
Occupation shopkeeper
Place of residence św. Wincentego Street 44, flat 6
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at św. Wincentego Street 44. Looking through the door of my shop, which exited onto the street, I saw how insurgents from Tykocińska Street attacked some Germans who were driving a tank from 11 Listopada Street. The Germans quickly overpowered the insurgents. The tank stopped in the street near our house. The Germans threw incendiary grenades into the first floor of our building and the one next to it. The grenade thrown into our house failed to explode. The residents of our building were in the basements. When the shooting broke out, I too retreated to the basement, having first closed the shop. The Germans burst into our courtyard. They threw a few grenades into the corridor, which started a fire. German SS-men ordered us in German to come out. It was dark. Women with children were the first to exit. Some of the Germans surrounded our group and led us to the courtyard of the cemetery’s presbytery, where we waited until morning in some shed (or small coach-house). In the morning, they ordered us to go to the basements, where we stayed until 4 August 1944. On 2 August I saw through the basement window how the Germans led the men (not from our house) to some place in the cemetery. Later on I heard shots.

When I returned home on the morning of Friday 4 August, I found that the neighboring house, no. 46, had been burned down. The bodies of our dead husbands were lying in the street, in the gate, and in the courtyard. A dozen or so people from our house had perished – approximately 20 in all together with the bodies lying in the neighboring courtyard. Of these, 12 men were residents of our house: my husband Bolesław Kociszewski, Wacław Górski, the two Wylocińskis, the two Stachowiczs, and Skorupski. I do not remember any more surnames.

The victims of the execution carried out on 1 August 1944 were buried in the courtyard of our house. An exhumation was conducted in the spring of 1945. The bodies that were recognized were buried by their families, while the remaining corpses – of unknown men – were taken by the administration of the Bródnowski Cemetery.

Towards the end of August 1944, the Germans proceeded to take all of the men from Targówek, leaving the women behind. [The men] were deported westward from the Gdański Railway Station. Before they were taken to German camps, some of them had worked in Wola on the front-line fortifications.

I did not hear about any other crimes committed in our area.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.