MARIA PRZEPIÓRKIEWICZ


Name and surname Maria Marta Przepiórkiewicz née Szafarek
Parents’ names Władysław and Anna née Kopańska
Date and place of birth 1 August 1915, Drwały, Płock county
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Nationality Polish
Education elementary school
Occupation pensioner
Place of residence Warsaw, Oksywska Street 14

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out I was in Warsaw at Oksywska Street 14. I have a sort of diary from the Uprising, which I kept in a calendar, and on this basis I recall the following events:

On 22 and 24 August 1944, all the men from the nearby houses (the second time also from our house) were taken by soldiers from the barracks on Gdańska Street and the school on Kolektorska Street and – as it turned out later – were transported to Pruszków.

On 29 August, the insurgents destroyed the school on Kolektorska Street, and on the following day the German crew left the barracks on Gdańska Street.

On 31 August, the “Ukrainians”, who came from the direction of Bielany, stormed into our district and began to loot houses, and in the garden at Gdańska Street 23 they raped a number of women, set the buildings on fire and told us to leave. The Germans who were on the corner of Kaskadowa and Kolektorska streets told us to go to Bielany. On the way there I broke off from the group with a few inhabitants from our house and we hid in the shelter on Żeromskiego Street. After some time, the “Ukrainians” found us there and ordered us to leave. They chose some women and raped them in the shelter.

When they were gone, we went to the retirement home in the Zdobycz Robotnicza housing estate, where we hid from the soldiers for three days. Then we learned that the insurgents had taken control of the area of our house on Oksywska Street, and on 3 September, we made our way there. We found out that our house had been looted.

On 11 September 1944, there was an attack on the Olejarnia by the “Ukrainians”, conducted from the Central Institute of Physical Education, which was repelled.

On 14 September, the Olejarnia was captured by German troops. At around 2.00 p.m. I saw five tanks on Rudzka Street, which were moving in the direction of Gdańska Street. The insurgents were not shooting at the Germans from our house, but they retreated through the yard. Then I went with the rest of the residents to Gdańska Street to the block of flats number 2. Some inhabitants of our house got to Gdańska Street 4. Later I learned that the house at Gdańska Street 4 was captured by the Germans on the following day (15 September), and some civilians were deported to the Pruszków transit camp.

At that the report was concluded and read out.