TEODOZJA KAMIŃSKA

Łódź, 16 March 1948. The investigating judge S. Krzyżanowska, assisted by Andrzej Janowski, the clerk of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, heard as a witness the person specified below; the witness did not swear an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Teodozja Kamińska
Date of birth 1 August 1903
Names of parents Antoni and Józefa née Sokołowska
Place of residence Łódź, Narutowicza Street 37, flat 11
Occupation beauty school instructor
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In order to complete my testimony of 12 March 1948, I would like to explain the following: I was on duty, along with others, in the hospital by St. Hyacinth’s Church. On 2 September 1944, in the morning if I remember correctly, when the German troops entered the premises, (I cannot tell what kind of units these were, but the soldiers were in German uniforms and spoke German and Ukrainian), the injured people were gathered only in the corridor. They were neither in the church nor in the chapter house. I know, however, that there was a sanitary post in the basement (marked on the plan with the number 6), but I don’t know any details regarding its fate.

As for the sanitary staff who stayed in the corridor, I can recall the following people apart from myself: Irena Skowronkówna, sister “Wanda”, “Zeba”, Karina Jankowska.

Already in the evening of the day the German units arrived, the “Ukrainians” and the Germans perpetrated many acts of rape against the members of the sanitary staff, and even against the injured people (I know that they raped a certain 13-year-old girl). They repeated these acts during the following days.

When, in the evening of 2 September, the corridor was set on fire (before my very eyes), the injured people from the corridor, as I had emphasized in the report, were taken out to Stara Street. We left only some five people in the corridor as they had died of fright when the corridor had been set on fire. No living person was left behind.

I could see what was going on in the yard during the entire day (2 September 1944). I could see the statue of the Mother of God, but I did not see any burning pile by it, either on 2 September or in the following days until I left the Old Town.

After a few days on Stara Street, acting on the advice of some Russian-speaking soldier, I left the Old Town with Irena Skowronkówna, a 13-year-old girl whom I did not know, a 17-year- old boy whom I did not know, a seriously injured soldier, and Kazimierz Goderski. We were directed to a transit post in the school by the Citadel. From there we went in a large group of civilians to the Pfeiffer factory. It is possible that our destination was opposite the Pfeiffer factory, but for sure we had to cross its premises. We were herded to some square. As we were entering it, a segregation was being carried out under the command of some German officer, whom the soldiers in German uniforms who were speaking Ukrainian (which I speak myself) were addressing as colonel. Older people and the injured people were separated from the rest; I also saw that the above-mentioned “colonel” chose a few young people. He picked me as well and took me to some room. I was questioned there about my personal data and, mystifyingly, about issues regarding Catholic theology.

After interrogation I was released and directed to the square, but I was told not to approach the garden where the people separated from our group, that is, the old, the injured and a few young people had been gathered – some 30 people in total, including the seriously injured man who had left the Old Town with us.

When I woke up in the square on the following morning, I noticed that the separated group was already gone from the garden. What happened to them, I do not know.

After a few days on the premises of the Pfeiffer factory (I would like to emphasize that I completely lost track of time then), we were directed to St. Adalbert’s Church on Wolska Street and then to the Western Railway Station from which we were deported to the Pruszków transit camp.