Warsaw, 15 May 1946. Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the gravity of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Helena Dobrzelak |
| Marital status | spinster |
| Names of parents | Józef and Antonina née Sobkowicz |
| Date of birth | 3 April 1903 in Warsaw |
| Occupation | lives with her family |
| Education | seven grades of primary school |
| Place of residence | […] |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
I was at home, at Wolska Street 26 in Warsaw, when the Warsaw Uprising broke out. The insurgents were in our house from the very beginning, fighting off the attacks of German troops. I worked as a nurse in the Anti-Aircraft unit [Obrona Przeciwlotnicza – OPL]. On 5 August 1944 the insurgents withdrew through basement openings, and around 5 p.m. German troops broke into our house shooting at the yard. At that time I was in the basement together with a group of a couple of hundred other residents of our house. The German soldiers ordered civilians to get out of the house. We all went out with our hands in the air. The German soldiers surrounded us, the guns in their hands ready to fire. They urged our group to stand by the wall, then by the gate and then back to the basement. My leg got injured and I fell down.
A state of turmoil followed. Frightened people were running around the basement, trampling me and the other wounded. After a while the soldiers in the yard ordered all of us once again to get out of the basement (raus). Those who could walk did so. I later learnt that out of the group that went out of the basement, the German soldiers executed only a couple of persons who had dared to speak out, the rest were herded to Saint Adalbert Church in Wola, and from there were deported to Germany via the Pruszków transit camp. Around one hundred dead or perhaps wounded were left with me in the basement. Since both of my legs were injured, I lay all night in a puddle of blood.
The next day I smelt smoke and I realized that the basement was on fire. Crawling on my belly, I got out to the yard of the house in Wolska Street 28. This house was also burning, but there was a small building in the yard that had not caught fire yet, and I crawled in there. I realized that I was in a toilet and I stayed there until Tuesday, 8 August 1944. My wounds hurt, I had a fever and I was suffering unbearably, not having had even a drop of water. On 8 August 1944 in the morning I saw two German soldiers entering the yard. I heard that they were talking in Russian or maybe Ukrainian to one another. I called out to them asking for help, but in response to my pleadings one of them shot at me with a pistol, hitting me in the neck. I felt like I was burnt with a cigarette, but I remained conscious. I saw the “Ukrainians” leaving in no hurry.
Sometime later I saw a couple of civilians wearing ragged cloths and covered in soot. Those were the residents of the house who had hid from the Germans under the lid of the rubbish bin. I asked them to give me some water, but there was none. These people left to hide in the basements. By myself I crawled out from the toilet and onto the rubble. On the same day, 18 August 1944 [sic!] in the evening, a group of German soldiers and “Ukrainians” came to the yard. I was unable to discern their unit. They were walking around the yard calling for Poles to come out of hiding, because they were not going to be killed. In response to these calls about one hundred dirty and ragged men, women and children came out of the basement. The soldiers shot the first man, and they herded the rest of the group to Wolska Street. Much later I was told that this group of civilians was executed by German soldiers on a playing field known as Venice. I was again left alone in the yard. A while later a few German soldiers accompanied by civilian men came around. The Germans ordered the men to carry me to Saint Stanislaus Hospital at Wolska Street. I was immediately given first aid, and that evening I had my right leg amputated and two wounds on the left one dressed.
(The witness shows a scar on her left leg and her right leg severed above the knee).
At that the report was concluded and read.