Dear Madam,
In response to an article published in Gazeta Ludowa on 17 April [1946], which I read only yesterday, I hasten to write of everything I know about the German and “Ukrainian” crimes committed in the hospital at Długa Street 7.
My sister, Maria Lekisan, was in that hospital as she was gravely injured on 26 August [1944] at the last post in the Polish Security Printing Works. When I was trying to find her, I collected information from the following sources:
1) Father Tomasz Rostworowski, a Jesuit, chaplain of that hospital, the only witness of the executions of the most seriously injured people in the basements. I spoke with him in Milanówek in the home run by the Ursuline Sisters of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, and the sisters should know his current whereabouts. This information could also be provided by other Jesuits from Warsaw. I believe that father Rostworowski is currently in Łódź.
2) In the former state secondary school in Milanówek, in the hospital, there were 28 injured people who had survived in the basement. Among them was a little girl from the group of 200 people who had been taken into the courtyard where the Germans threw grenades at them; she survived by miracle. In the hospital, I spoke with the injured. I didn’t see the little girl.
3) On Grudowska Street, on the right-hand side as you walk from the market square (in Milanówek) there was a hospital. I think it was called the Perełka, where there were injured women from Długa Street 7. Among them was Sister Mela and another sister, domiciled at Bytowa Street 6.
4) Sister Czajkowska, a nurse from Długa Street 7, who used to live at Graniczna Street 33 (in Milanówek), in the second house in the back. She stayed in the hospital almost until the end. Her sister was, and probably still is, distributing dinners.
5) Dr. Zawadzki, one of the doctors in that hospital during the Uprising, who lived in Podkowa Leśna Wschodnia.
6) Inside the main gate of the building, facing onto Długa Street, on the right hand side, on two sides of a door, there were two marble plaques, on which the history of these few hours was written in pencil. I also added my question to the other questions written there. It was on 25 March last year. In the summer, the plaques were gone. Who took them off? Who wanted to erase the traces? At that point the bones of the martyrs were scattered all over the yard in a burnt pile and throughout the various wings of the building, and there were charred corpses still lying on beds in the basements. This was when the ceremonial funeral of P.S.L. soldiers, who died in a bomb explosion in some shelter, was held on the streets of Warsaw.
To the best of my knowledge, the harrowing history of the hospital is as follows. On 1 September [1944], as rightly observed in the newspaper, some of the less seriously injured patients and most of the hospital staff left the premises. On 2 September in the morning, the SS and the “Ukrainians” entered the hospital. They asked whether there were weapons and other military equipment there. As you know, it was a Homy Army hospital. Two sisters said that it was a civilian hospital, but weapons and uniforms were found, and both sisters were promptly executed. The SS threatened that the hospital would be burned down with all the injured people inside. The Wehrmacht also came to the hospital and argued with the SS that such an act could not be perpetrated, as it would be straightforward murder. People were even ordered to prepare their dinner peacefully and not to fear anything!
In the early morning, anticipating all eventualities connected with the arrival of the Germans, Father Tomasz granted absolution to all the injured people and administered Holy Communion. Only one young boy didn’t want it. At around 10.00 a.m. the murders began.
Those injured people who could walk and could therefore go downstairs to the shelter during bombardment were on the ground floor and on the upper floors. Those who could not walk were lying in the basements. My sister was in the left wing (looking from the yard when you enter from Długa Street), on the ground floor, in the third room on the left. On the right there must have been a kitchen, since there were many dishes.
Some 200 people were herded into the yard. Several dozen, mainly old women, two paramedics and the chaplain, were told to go through Mariensztat to the Carmelite church. The chaplain was forced to go, although he didn’t want to, but he managed to come back and was therefore present during the execution. On the way, he saw that a young woman who couldn’t walk had not been executed. A machine gun was placed in and grenades were thrown into the yard where the injured were gathered. The floors were allegedly doused with gasoline and set on fire. Many of the injured people were still alive. The injured from the basement told me that amid the shooting, they could hear groans and screams of women. When the building began to burn, some of the injured made a desperate dash for the gate. So many of them were butchered with machine guns that they made an insurmountable pile of bodies.
At the same time, two SS-men began to clear out the basement. Father Rostworowski managed to join them somehow. He followed them, granting absolution to the dying. One German was shining a torch and the other was shooting at the heads of gravely injured people in their beds, repeating this at every bedside. When they finished with the entire room, they would set fire to the straw in the mattresses. When they reached the last room, someone from outside, probably one of the “Ukrainians”, threw a grenade into the basement. Seeing that their escape had been cut off by the flames, the Germans abandoned the rest of the injured to their fate and escaped through the window. The priest left after them, having granted absolution to the rest of the injured. Father Rostworowski left the hospital safe and sound and hid in a house in Mariensztat, where he remained until 3 October. He left Warsaw after the surrender.
The women who stayed in the basement extinguished the fire with blankets and remained there for three days and three nights, in complete darkness, without a drop of water, without any food or dressing materials, until the arrival of a Carmelite rescue expedition.
In Milanówek, in the building of the state secondary school, I talked to a young boy who was to be executed. What happened to the 800 injured people? Were they all executed? Some were deported to Gusen, as I learned from chance acquaintances. Sister Czajkowska told me that some people could not bear the horrific sight of people burning alive and died of heart attacks. Dr. Zawadzki’s sister didn’t want to leave her post and thus died.
As I mentioned above, on 25 March of last year, on a sunny, warm day, just like 2 September 1944, there was a pile of charred remains, skulls, tibia bones, aluminum […] in the yard. There were many bones, especially in the left wing, in the corridor near the room where my sister had been staying. On the right side of that room, by the bed, was a charred corpse with a slightly open mouth, as if from suffocation. I met someone there who knew this story first hand… He was walking with me, remembering, but not saying much. I didn’t go to the basement since I didn’t have a candle. I was alone and afraid that it might make too great an impression on me.
My sister, codename “Maria,” was a courier. She was honored with the cross of the Polish Military Organization and the Cross of Valor. She was 45 years old, completely grey-haired, and she worked for the underground with her son, who also took part in the Uprising. Her son, Witold, honored with the Cross of Merit and two Crosses of Valor, saw his mother for the last time on 28 August, and a few hours later was ordered to go through the sewers to Śródmieście. He came back from captivity from an infirmary in Altengrabow, since he was seriously injured, and now lives with me in Olsztyn.
My sister had one cheek burnt and the other bruised with fractured bones. She had three fractured ribs.
Should you know a way to find out whether there is anyone who saw my sister later than her son, I would be most grateful for letting me know.
Please keep in mind that Father Rostworowski, if he has not already testified, would prove a very knowledgeable witness. Who took the bones (since they were gone by summer) on behalf of the municipal office or of someone else? Where are these bones now?
Cecylia Uchelam
Assistant at the Castle Museum
in Olsztyn Mazurski
Address: Warmińska Street 7, flat 5