13 May 1949, Warsaw. Member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false statements, the witness testified as follows:
Name and Surname | Wanda Młynarska |
Date and Place of Birth | 22 December 1905, Suwałki |
Parents’ names | Jan and Zofia, née Cimochowska |
Father’s profession | Clerk |
State and national affiliation | Polish |
Religious affiliation | Catholic |
Education | Warsaw School of Economics |
Occupation | Clerk at the Ministry of Domestic Trade |
Place of Residence | Warsaw, Bytomska Street 7 |
Criminal Record | None |
When the uprising broke out I was in the house at Bytomska Street 7, where I stayed until 15 September 1944. Because of the heavy bombing raid that took place that day, I hid in the basement of the house along with my family, acquaintances who were at that time staying in our house, and people fleeing from Marymont – about 16 people in total.
At around 10-11 a.m. we heard footsteps. Someone was coming in our direction – German soldiers, as it turned out. Having made our presence known to them, we were called upon in broken German to come out immediately or something worse would happen to us. After coming out, I saw a few soldiers. Because of the stress I was under I failed to take notice of the uniforms they were wearing or any details of their clothing. I only remember that one of them, standing at the entrance to the basement, was holding a grenade in his hand. We were ordered to go straight to Bielany. Being the last one to leave the house, I noticed that two men who were with us, Kazimierz Wiatrak, a locksmith, about 40 years of age, and Stefan Brisemajster, a radio technician, about 38 years of age, living at Bytomska 7, were separated from the rest of us, the women and children, and kept in the courtyard near the house. The women and children were sent in the direction of an assembly point at Kamedułów Street, where displaced people were gathering and from where we were taken to Las Bielański (The Bielanski Forest) and then to the monastery in Bielany. Finally, we were released and told to go outside Warsaw.
After the Germans were driven out of the city, I returned to my house at Bytomska 7, on 18 March 1945. The house was burned down. I found the remains of two graves, one right by the fence and the other some three steps away. After stirring the earth a little, I discovered shallowly buried human bodies in each of the graves. In one of them I saw a sleeve from a man’s jacket and in the other a skull. I raked up the earth, without trying to dig up deeper.
After some time, while staying with my family in Słomniki, I wrote a letter to Bisemajster’s relatives in which I informed them of the graves I had discovered in the courtyard. Relying on my information, they began to search for the body. However, the only body found was that of Wiatrak, who was buried in one of the graves I had discovered in the courtyard of the house at Bytomska 7 on 18 March 1945. As it turned out, the bodies from the other grave had been removed by a janitor from the houses at Bytomska Street, living at Bytomska 10 (I can’t remember his name, but I will try to learn it and inform the Commission).
All this information, including the fact that one of the persons buried in this grave was identified as Wiktorowicz, a doctor living in the neighboring house on Mickiewicza Street, was imparted to me by my acquaintances. I was not present at the exhumation of either Wiatrak or the other two bodies.
At this the report was concluded and read out.