The SS-men would order a few of us into the basement, and as soon as the people went in, I heard gunfire. When our group shrank to about 30 persons, they took me and my mother into that basement . . . The moment I walked in, I saw blood on the floor, and in the cellar ahead of me, a meter-high pile of corpses. The electric light was on. In the corridor was a bunch of SS-men, and at the door to each of the cellars stood an SS-man with a cocked weapon . . . They told me to enter the room with the meter-high heap of bodies and puddles of blood. My mother and I were ordered to climb the pile of corpses. My mother went first, and I saw an SS-man shoot her in the back of the head, and I saw her go down. I followed her and fell without waiting for the soldier to fire – but he did, and hit my right shoulder. After that, around twenty people were forced to climb that pile before being shot. A few corpses fell on me, covering me completely except for my head. There was a clock in that basement that chimed hour after hour, so I know it was 1 a.m. when the SS-men finally left.

Wiesława Chełmińska, 13 

Janina Rozińska, an excerpt of testimony of 18 April 1947 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“Together with my children I got to the depot with a group of around two hundred people, mostly women with children and pregnant women driven from Franaszek’s factory shelter, as well as from Wolska Street. The group was crowded in Młynarska Street, near the depot’s lavatory. Around forty SS soldiers and soldiers without SS markings stood around us.

Somewhere close by there was a machine gun standing, I am however unable to specify its location, due to the intense emotions I was experiencing. The Germans opened fire from the machine gun in the direction of our crowded group. After the first volley, wounded people started to get up from among the crowd, and then the Germans threw hand grenades at us. I saw a baby spilling out from the belly of a wounded pregnant woman, I saw a German coming up to it, taking the baby, which was alive, into his hands, putting it on some scrap metal and stabbing it with wires.

Together with my children I found myself near the wall of the lavatory. My son was seriously wounded after the first volley in the back of his head. I got hit from a grenade in both of my legs and in my belly. My daughter got hit from a grenade in her legs, skull, belly and breasts.

After everyone in the group fell to the ground, the Germans, standing outside of our group, were shooting at the wounded who made an attempt to get up or who moved. Until nightfall they kept approaching the people who lay on the ground, aiming at whoever moved, and at the same time they were making jokes and laughing, in particular if some wounded person got hit. After nightfall I managed to crawl into the lavatory together with my son, my daughter and the 16-years-old Jadwiga Perkowska, who was wounded in her leg. My little boy was still showing faint signs of life. I stayed in the lavatory for two more days with my daughter and Perkowska, with no help at all.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 149 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 149)

Daniela Serafińska

“We were all on the sidewalk and at one point we see that there are three machine guns standing near our house. One of them is standing near Hankiewicz’s house, but closer to Ordona Street, the second one is standing near our entrance gate and the third one is not standing there at the end by Prądzyńskiego Street, but about twenty maybe fifteen, meters away, three machine guns. Before we realized it, there was a volley of shots from those machine guns. One volley went, then another volley, and silence. And then I saw… Of course, everyone had fallen and there were dead bodies… I crouched down, actually I sat down like this [sideways], and here my legs. My mom was behind me, next to me. After the first volley I heard her saying, because the moans had already started, there were already people killed, and apparently a machine gun has this quality that one man gets three bullets and the other one nothing, so different things happened, “Danusia, are you alive? Are you alive?” – “I’m alive, mom”. We were in such contact, we couldn’t see each other, because she also fell down, all the people fell down when they started shooting, and the corpses too. I said: “I’m alive, I’m alive”. After the second volley, my mom didn’t ask me anymore, there was silence, I only asked: “Mommy, are you alive?”. Nothing, silence. I already knew she was dead. […] And so we were lying in their blood. During the second volley a girl fell in front of me, I knew her, she was nineteen years old, a pretty girl, blond hair, hip-length braid, and she was standing right in front of me and covering me, because she was tall, taller than me, and apparently she crouched down just so that her head was sticking out. That was apparently how it was going to happen. I was wearing my autumn coat, mommy gave it to me and said: “Maybe we’ll be taken somewhere.” People said then, as they were leading us, that they would probably deport us, that the men might be sent somewhere to camps, but us? We didn’t expect that. It was only when we turned around in front of the building towards the park that we saw it. That girl actually saved my life, she got hit by the Germans somehow, so that her whole skull and those pieces [of skull], they [fell] on my coat. There were only corpses around me. Anyway, as it turned out later, I was lying closer to the entrance to the park, where I was actually the only one who survived.”

From the Oral History Archive of the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Daniela Serafińska.

Aniela Przybylska, Warsaw 1944 r.

“On 3 or 4 August, as we were in the flat, we heard shooting from the first. I ran out to the staircase and from the window I saw that there were a few SS men in the courtyard who were shooting all around with light machine guns. The corpses of women and children were lying there. Many women and children were spread about in disorder around the courtyard. I didn’t see any men except for one who lay dead. (…) Having left our flat, we managed to hide in one of the flats in the second staircase. I hid in the toilet, and my cousin lay on the kitchen floor, playing dead. Being there, we could hear the Germans yelling, shooting, and the screaming of Poles being killed, and these sounds were issuing all the time from the courtyard and individual flats. The Germans were constantly roaming and looting the flat in which we had hidden. At one point I heard that they entered the adjacent flat. I heard a woman scream, “don’t kill me!” and then the sound of a body falling down the stairs and a single shot. In the evening we went from that flat back to ours (on my way I saw the body of a woman on the stairs, and I think that it was the one who had been pushed down the stairs and shot by the Germans). Our flat was completely burnt down. We walked quietly down the stairs, hoping to reach the basement. On the ground floor in the staircase I saw a dozen or so bodies of women and children. When I saw that the German soldiers were approaching, we lay among the bodies of these killed people. The soldiers did not notice us. Then we hid in the basement under the stairs. We could still hear the voices of the Germans from the courtyard and the staircase, and we could still hear shooting. On the fourth day of hiding there we felt an enormous heat and heard the roar of fire. We recognized from the sound that the corpses from the staircase were burning. On the following day we went to the attic of the house. Passing by the ground floor, we saw charred human bones with no flesh, as there were no longer any bodies there.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s.124. (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.124)

Wanda Lurie, Warsaw 1944 r.

“It was already dark when the executions ended. During breaks, the slaughterers would walk over the corpses, kicking, turning them over, killing those still alive and despoiling them. They touched the bodies through some kind of special cloths. They took away the watch from my wrist, but didn’t notice that I was still alive. While doing these horrible things, they were drinking vodka, singing merry songs, and laughing. Beside me lay a corpulent man in a leather jacket who wheezed for a long time. The Germans shot him five times before he finally died. These shots injured my leg. I lay in a puddle of blood for a long time, crushed by corpses. I was only thinking of dying, how much longer I would have to endure. At night, I pushed away the dead bodies lying on top of me.

The next day the executions ceased. The Germans came a couple of times with dogs, running over the corpses and checking whether anyone was still alive. I heard single shots, they were probably finishing off those still living.

I lay there for three days, that is until Monday (the execution took place on Saturday). On the third day I felt that the baby I was expecting was still alive. This gave me strength, the thought of rescue formed in my mind. I started thinking, examining possible ways of saving myself. When I tried to get up, I got nauseous and dizzy several times. Finally, I crawled on all fours over the bodies towards the wall. There were corpses lying everywhere, [in piles] that were at least as high as I am tall, and they were all over the yard

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s.130 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.130)

Hanna Seliga, Warsaw 1944 r.

“There were a few hundred of us. German soldiers were walking among us, shooting individual people. On the street there was a machine gun and a tank was riding to and fro.

I don’t know whether this tank fired [its gun]. I was lying on the ground on my side, and through the coat which covered me I could see what was happening. I saw a soldier shoot my neighbour lying in front of me, and then her small baby lying in a pram. Moreover, they were walking by turns from the direction of the street and killing the people on the ground. When a soldier approached me, he fired and hit me in the arm. Some executed woman was lying on my legs. At around 7 p.m., after almost everyone had been killed, the shooting ceased. Then Poles who came to clear the dead told those who were alive to get up. That was the time I got up. My daughter was not with me, apparently her body must have already been taken. Bodies of the dead were taken to a neighbouring property, where they were put onto a pile and set on fire.”

 Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 151 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.151)

Testimony of Henryk Zaleski of 1948 before Wrocław Commission for Investigation of German Crimes on crimes committed by Nazis in the vicinity of Okopowa Street.

“I suppose that the Germans were executing Polish civilians from Warsaw over the course of capturing particular objectives. At first they were executing the inhabitants of Wola and the neighbouring streets of Okopowa Street, and then from other districts of the city, especially from the Old Town. The Germans and the Vlasovtsy were burning the corpses of the executed men, women and children.

On 28 September at night we had to leave the cell, as Woch and Kalinowski, when they were taking out the bags of groats from the warehouse, spilled them and therefore aroused the suspicion of the Germans. We hid in the Jewish Cemetery. On the following day we were found by a group of partisans of Major Bicz and Capt. Maks. We stayed in the tombs with that group until 16 October. After 28 September, when I was observing the partially burnt factory premises at Okopowa Street 59, [I noticed] that the Gestapo units, the gendarmerie units and the auxiliary “Ukrainian” units were roaming the premises. The units which were executing the Poles must have been stationed somewhere in the vicinity of Warsaw. It is possible that it was in Powązki-Miasteczko, since after setting fire to the pile with bodies we could hear the roar of departing cars.”

Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Ludność Cywilna w Powstaniu Warszawskim, Warszawa 1974, s. 585 (National Publishing Institute, Civilian Population in Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw 1974, p. 585)

Testimony of Stanisław Trzciński of 1948 before Wrocław Commission for Investigation of German Crimes on crimes committed by Nazis in the vicinity of Okopowa Street.

“(…) the Germans had ceased coming to the square and the shots had ceased, I moved to the premises of the burnt-out building at Okopowa Street 53. A week or so later, I moved again, to the premises of the Jewish Cemetery, where I hid in one of the tombs. During one of my forays for food, I stumbled upon a group of six people hiding in the school at Okopowa Street 55: four women (Mmes.. Korzeniak, Śledź, currently residing at Okopowa Street 55, Mses. Korzeniak, and Jankowska) and two men (Korzeniak Bolesław, currently residing in Warsaw at Spokojna Street, and a boy). I joined them and together we hid on the premises of the school until 8 December 1944. Prior to this date we were joined by Stanisław Komar, who related how he had seen an execution of civilians on the square at Okopowa Street 59, stating that these people were then burned in the night on piles. I don’t know Komar’s current whereabouts.

On 8 December we abandoned our hiding place and left Warsaw.”

Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Ludność Cywilna w Powstaniu Warszawskim, Warszawa 1974, s 582 (National Publishing Institute, Civilian Population in Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw 1974, p. 582)

Stanisław Pętlak, an excerpt of testimony of 8 March 1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“We stood there, the women near the park gate, the men closer to Elekcyjna Street. The soldiers started to shoot us with machine guns from Ordona Street. The guns were not visible from the site of the execution. I started to run away as the first volley was still being fired; I jumped over the fence and fell into the nettles on the inside of the park, unharmed.

Lying down I saw other residents of our house fall after the volleys, I saw a soldier snatch away a baby from the arms of a young mother, shoot her and throw the child onto the tramway tracks. When the volleys stopped, I saw troops (“Ukrainians”, and I also think I saw SS-men there as well) walk between the people on the ground, killing off those still alive with revolver shots. After a short break, a group of women, children and men from the municipal house on the corner of Wolska Street 132 and Elekcyjna Street 1/3 were moved to the fence of Sowińskiego Park. Later on, I heard volleys close by and far away, for the entire day. Groups of men, women and children were brought over to the fence one after another, but how many people were brought there, and in how many groups, I cannot tell.

In the evening, I saw a group of civilian men who started to carry the corpses from the execution site to a square in the park. The moving of the bodies was not finished on that day. I didn’t see the burning of the corpses.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 39 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 39)

Stanisław Adamczewski, c 29 April 1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“A day later, on 6 August 1944, a different group of “Ukrainians” set our house on fire.

A couple of days later yet another group of them found Henryk Pieczonka and took him away. I recognized his body, dumped in the ruins, in 1945 after the liberation.

I don’t remember the date when a group of German soldiers captured me as well. I was added to a group of workers housed at Sokołowska Street. A unit of Verbrennungskommando workers, who were used to burn corpses, was quartered on the second floor of the house we lived in. I heard from them that the bodies of all the persons shot in our yard had been burnt. They also said that a lot of corpses had been burnt in the yard of the house at Wolska Street 4. A large pile of human bodies was burnt in the Staszic Foundation’s garden on a heap of coal which used to be stored there. They said that the Foundation’s garden had also been used as an execution site to shoot residents of nearby houses from the Karolkowa Street side. I worked demolishing the barricades. While demolishing a barricade near the Hala Mirowska [trade hall] at the end of August 1944, I saw German soldiers executing two captured insurgents who could have been 15–17 years old.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 43 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.43)

Włodzimierz Włodarski, an excerpt of testimony of 18 April 1947 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“During their stay in our hospital, the German units committed a number of crimes and robberies. The first event chronologically was the following: on 8 August, SS-men from General Dirlewanger’s combat group brought two insurgents (aged around 18) to the hospital grounds. They were told to take off their shoes, their Polish military uniforms were torn off them, and their caps with eagles were taken away. Having turned them in this way into scruffy delinquents, the Germans told them to hold a red flag with a white eagle, photographed them, and then hanged them from a tree between the kitchen and the sick ward and photographed them again. They were only taken down after a few hours, following several interventions from the Polish hospital directors.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s.221 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 221)

Władysław Pec, an excerpt of testimony of 24 April 1947 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“I lay down beneath the dead bodies, unmoving (for fear of being shot), until 12 a.m. Then, as there was silence, I crawled out of the macaroni factory to the house at Płocka Street 25, which was on fire. Crawling around, I saw that there were only male corpses at the site of the execution. Another survivor was a young boy, Szymański, who now lives somewhere in Wola. Szymański was not wounded; he was saved by his short stature, as the gendarme aimed for the heads. The next day I saw in the yard of our house four or five corpses of the house’s residents. The rest were shot in the square in front of the [Wolska] 23 house, together with the tenants of that house. On 6 and 7 August 1944, a column of workers from Sokołowska Street cleaned up the corpses from Płocka Street and the macaroni factory, burning them in the factory grounds. Later I heard that they collected some four thousand corpses from that area.

I was hiding with some men (who had managed to avoid execution) in Płocka Street until 12 September, when we had to go out into the street because of the lack of water. At that point we were captured by the Germans and taken to Saint Adalbert church, from where we were sent to the Pruszków transit camp.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s.72 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 72)

Felicja Kamińska, an excerpt of testimony of 22 April 1947 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“The group of Germans rushed into the courtyard yelling ‘raus’. The civilians began to go out. I could hear terrible screams of despair. I stayed in my own flat, which had seven rooms, situated on the first floor, and I was looking out at the courtyard and at the street. I heard shots and explosions of grenades. When I looked into the courtyard, I saw a pile of corpses under the balcony of the other building. There were also other single bodies scattered in various places of the courtyard, mostly children. Later on I heard the sound of running feet and then screams, explosions of grenades and shots in some flats. I don’t know why the Germans did not enter my flat, even though I had locked the door and didn’t come out.

The executions lasted about half an hour, then there was silence. I realised that the execution squad had gone to the restaurant located on the ground floor of the building, at the front. They had set fire to the building. I saw that there was only one German left as a guard at the gate. Since I was already choking with smoke, I ran across the courtyard, heading to the factory. Passing the courtyard, I saw about 50 corpses. Then, seeing which of the residents had been shot by the Germans, I deduced that more than 50 of them had been killed. In the night from 6 to 7 August I left Warsaw. The corpses were later burnt in the courtyard. It was already 1945, after my husband came back to Warsaw, when the remains were buried in the yard. Later on, the families exhumed the ashes and moved them to the cemetery.”

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 50 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.50)

Wiesława Chełmińska, an excerpt of testimony of 7 May 1947 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“A group of SS-men were standing in the corridor, and by the entrance to each of the wards there was an SS-man with a machine pistol at the ready. I was ordered to enter a ward where there was already a pile of corpses one meter high and puddles of blood. My mother and I were ordered to climb the pile of corpses. My mother did so first and I saw an SS-man shoot her in the back of her head, then I saw her collapse. I climbed after her and collapsed without even waiting for the soldier to shoot me. He shot anyway, hitting my right arm. After me, about twenty more people were forced to climb the pile, and then they were shot. Several corpses collapsed on me, only my head stuck out. There was a clock on the wall, it was striking the hour, and this is how I know that it was one o’clock at night when the SS-men left. I do not know when they started the fire. Around two o’clock I felt that my shoes, which had rubber soles, had started to smoulder. I crawled from under the corpses and walked to the next ward in the basement, where about fifteen corpses were lying inside, by the entrance.” 

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 172 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p.172)

Maria Kamińska, an excerpt of testimony of 7 May1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“When it was my turn, I knew, going down the stairs, why I was being led down there. The light was on in the basement; there were a number of wards along the corridor. Through the open doors of three wards I could see corpses lying on the floors. Armed soldiers were standing at the doors. The three persons walking in front of me stepped on the corpses, and the soldiers at the door shot them in the backs of their heads. Seeing that it was an execution, I began to scream and resist. A soldier took me and a woman following me by the arms and pushed us both into the first ward in the basement, to the left of the entrance. I fell down right at the doorstep, without being wounded. I felt the other woman fall on my legs. After that, the people following were coming in, being shot right afterwards. There were several corpses lying on me. As I was lying next to a locker with bandages, I threw some of them to the men who were alive but wounded. There could have been approximately fifty corpses in the ward. At some point I heard footsteps. Two soldiers poured some liquid over the corpses lying by the door, and then set fire to them. The fire erupted. The wounded men rushed to escape. The soldiers chased them; I don’t know if they were successful in escaping.” 

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 169 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 169)

Otylia Truka, an excerpt of testimony of 29 March 1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“We were taken down Wolska Street to St Stanislaus Hospital. I stayed there together with the St Lazarus Hospital staff. I worked there as a nurse, but I was not allowed to leave the hospital, which was controlled by the Germans. Five days later the German head doctor allowed me and a few other people to go back to St Lazarus Hospital to get our belongings. We went there in one group under German guard. When I entered the hospital grounds, I saw several human corpses lying around in various places in the yard. The hospital buildings were partially burnt down. My urological ward was the only one that had not been burnt down. When I got there, I saw the patients who had objected to being taken downstairs killed in their beds. There were a few of them, all of them had gunshot wounds. My colleagues, who went there with me, told me that they had seen many corpses in the basements of building number 4 and of building number 2.” 

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 181 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 181)

Barbara Krzemińska 

“A murderous massacre was taking place, inhuman groans and wails coming from the wounded in the cellars, single shots could be heard. One would think that the walls would burst, unable to stand so much pain and blood. I don’t know how long this lasted, I thought that time had stopped. We were not allowed to move, while on the other side, from building ’E’, a machine gun rattled and a hail of bullets was mowing down the entire personnel of that department, lined up against the wall. The dead were everywhere: nuns, nurses, one of the administrative employees with his children, while Doctor Szymańska lay in the cellar doorway, and around her a cluster of bodies – these were the patients who wanted to be with her right up until the end. Suddenly, the cry ’Long live Poland!’ pierced the air, hot with flames, and died away. The wounded – decimated, murdered – lay on their beds, only a small group of us remained. The Germans ran amongst the bodies as if possessed, demanding keys to the blazing storehouses. Two nuns went to hand them over, but they did not return – they were shot dead near the storehouse. Bullets were fired in our direction, and now only a head or two protruded from the crowd. Our eyes hurt from the heat, and our faces burned.

Silence descended, we sensed smoke and the smell of partially burned bodies that had been doused with petrol. I don’t know why we survived the bullets. We were led away from the hospital. A German informed us that we would be executed elsewhere. We were sad to leave the ’Lazarus’ and our friends, who were lying dead all around. We walked away, stumbling over human bodies, near the gate I fell, having caught my foot on the sprawled body of an insurrectionist in an army camouflage coat.

The ’Lazarus’ continued to burn throughout Sunday, 6 August. After ten days, as I worked at St Stanisław Hospital in the Wola district, I managed to get to the ’Lazarus’ to find my dead friend, Irena Rutkowska.

I went to the cellars. I remembered many of the wounded. Now, in death, after ten days had passed, they lay just as they had been left on that tragic night, only the sickly smell of decay permeated the air. The German who kindly accompanied me was sensitive enough that he had to leave the cellars. I was free to look for my acquaintances and permanently imprint on my memory what these barbarians were capable of. One of the cellars in which the sick were crowded was literally crammed with a mountain of bodies, and the faces of the victims still carried the look of fearful terror that accompanied them in their passing.

It was clear that a grave was being readied in the courtyard, for a hole had been dug, while many blackened human remains lay by the walls; nobody could be recognised. Other corpses, partially charred, had ghastly, grisly faces, swollen to three times their normal size, and with burnt out eyes.”

Archiwum IPN w Warszawa, IPN GK 182/131, Powstanie Warszawskie. Protokoły przesłuchania świadków odnośnie rozstrzelania rannych i chorych oraz części personelu Szpitala św. Łazarza, s 52-56 (Institute of National Remembrance’s Archive in Warsaw, IPN GK 182/131, The Warsaw Uprising. Protocols of interrogation of witnesses regarding the execution of the wounded and the sick, as well as part of the personnel of St. Lazarus Hospital, p. 52-56)

Lucyna Lange, an excerpt of testimony of 11 January 1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“I also saw a great number of bodies around the hospital – on the threshold, on the pavements and in the street. Some of the bodies had hospital gowns on, while others were dressed in civilian clothing. The bodies of insurrectionists were also visible. For a period of two weeks from 6 August, I would go to fetch food and I would see lots of murdered women, children, and men, usually in groups of 10 or 20. Single bodies were a rare sight. The courtyards of the houses along Górczewska Street – nearly all of them – had piles of bodies.

I cannot specify the number of victims. In any case, when I went out of the hospital into Płocka Street, and the proceeded along Górczewska Street to the Koło housing estate, I would always see hundreds of bodies. I saw Polish labourers commanded by SS men who were burning bodies in Górczewska Street, on the premises of Majewski’s bakery. The Polish labourers would collect the bodies and put them on a pile, which they then doused in petrol and set alight. The bodies from these piles were put into two graves opposite Wolski Hospital – this was carried out by Dr Rott in March 1945.” 

Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 196 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 196)

Mieczysław Krzysztoforski, an excerpt of testimony of 16 April 1946 before District Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw.

“Derkacz said that at the time of the execution he ran to one of the burning houses. As he was reaching the house, he got shot in the arm. In one of the flats in that house he found some women who had been hanged. He cut them loose, and it turned out that two of them were alive. It turned out that the Germans had set the house on fire with the residents still inside. The women, afraid to jump out of the burning house and seeing through the window the site where men were being executed (the same place where I had been) – perhaps these were their dearest ones – hanged themselves. All six of them and one child in one flat. Derkacz mentioned that after he had cut the nooses three out of five women were alive. However one of them, who had hanged her child as well, having come around and seeing that the child was dead, hanged herself again. But the remaining two rescued women (I don’t know their names) ran away, and one of them was escaping with Derkacz, and then with us.” 

 Ośrodek Badań nad Totalitaryzmami im. Witolda Pileckiego, Zapisy Terroru II Warszawa, Warszawa 2017, s. 206 (Witold Pilecki Center for Totalitarian Studies, Chronicles of Terror II Warsaw, Warsaw 2017, p. 206)