BRONISŁAWA KILIAŃSKA

Warsaw, 23 February 1950. Trainee Judge Irena Skonieczna, 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:


Name and surname Bronisława Kiliańska, née Bobowska
Date and place of birth 1 September 1891, Odrzywół, Opoczno county
Parents’ names Józef and Ewa, née Oladowska
Father’s occupation farmer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education intermediate school leaving exam
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Bielany, Kleczewska Street 37, flat 6
Criminal record none

From 2 August 1944 I was in the house at Służewska Street 7, for when the Uprising broke out I was in town and managed to get back to my house only on the next day. The residents of our street had run away from their houses through the basements, passing from this dangerous district to areas occupied by the insurgents.

On 5 August Germans – Gestapo men – burst into our street. They ordered all the residents to leave their houses. We were led out along 6 Sierpnia Street into aleja Szucha. There they separated the men from the women and children. Our group of people from Służewska Street and the neighboring houses, numbering more or less 500, spent the night there. The next day in the morning the Germans took the men somewhere, while the women with children were led along Litewska Street to Marszałkowska Street, where we were ordered to proceed to the insurgent lines, to Mokotowska Street.

While at aleja Szucha I heard people saying that the Germans were putting the populace onto their tanks and using them as a human shield. However, I am unable to provide any details concerning these stories. Neither where these tanks, shielded by the civilians, were going, nor whether only men – or maybe both men and women – were used to form the human shield. I did not witness any German crimes during the Uprising.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.