IRENA ZGRYCH

Warsaw, 1 March 1950. Judge Janina Skoczyńska, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Irena Zgrych, née Bukowska
Date and place of birth 25 March 1904, Warsaw
Parents’ names Franciszek and Felicja, née Jabłońska
Father’s occupation technician
Citizenship Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation teacher
Place of residence Warsaw, Suzina Street 3, flat 93
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Furmańska Street 12. Already at the very beginning of the Uprising, a first-aid post was set up in this house, administered by Dr. Bogdanowicz (I do not know his present whereabouts), in a two-room shop on the ground floor. The medical staff was made up mainly of young girls, scouts, and volunteers from amongst the civilians who were present in the house. The area between the Castle and Karowa Street was a no-man’s-land until 6 or 7 August 1944 (I do not now remember the exact date). The insurgent command headquarters was located at Karowa Street. The Germans were in control of the even-numbered side of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, with powerful units occupying the University, Council of Ministers and [illegible annotation] House. Forty or so wounded people were lying at our post, nearly all of them civilians. We had a great many wounded children, women and men who had been injured not in the fighting, (for the military conflict in this area lasted only one day), but by a sniper who from the rooftop of one of the houses shot at anyone who appeared in the street.

On 7 August the Germans occupied our area. The civilian population was evicted from their homes and marched off in the direction of the Saski Garden, and from there to the Wola district. Once the people had been thrown out, the Germans ,SS-men, started setting fire to the houses. After the Uprising I met some of the people who had been evicted from this area on 7 August 1944. They told me that the civilian population –men, women, and children – had been used in the Saski Garden as a human shield, under cover of which the SS-men fired upon the insurgents, in the direction of Marszałkowska Street.

Some of the girls and a few of the walking wounded left our first-aid post at Furmańska Street 12. Although the Germans did threaten that they would set us on fire if all of the healthy people failed to leave, we did not abandon our wounded to certain death. Only a few girls, a qualified female nurse, and Dr. Bogdanowicz stayed behind. During the three days following the eviction of the civilian population from our area the Germans – having set fire to all of the neighboring houses – frequently spent the night and stayed at our facility. At night they would occupy the beds of the wounded, first throwing them to the floor, and hurl abuse at us, shout, and constantly threaten to burn us alive.

Our young girls were in the gravest peril. The Germans would order them to enter the houses that they aimed to occupy in order to check whether there were no insurgents inside. Thanks to our uninterrupted vigilance, no rapes were committed at this time.

On 9 or 10 August before noon the Germans – SS-men – dragged out all of our girls and a few other people who had sought refuge at our post. They stood them all against the wall of the house at Bednarska Street, at the corner of Furmańska Street. They toyed with them by shooting over the heads of the girls into the windows of the house. Next they robbed them of all their jewellery and allowed them to return to the post.

That same evening, the SS-men ordered us to evacuate the hospital immediately. There was no place to which we could carry out the wounded. Furmańska Street was in flames, and both sides of Bednarska Street were aflame, too. The houses in the small, blind-side street of Furmańska, Mularska Street, were already burnt out. We therefore placed the wounded on the street-stones. Mularska Street exited opposite our post. Thus, we had to carry the wounded – under fire – along Furmańska Street.

During the evacuation, Germans standing in the adjacent gate shot a woman carrying a small child and [wounded] two men; one of them received a grievous bullet wound to the stomach. One of the men was wounded in both eyes, and thus lost his sight. He, however, survived. From Mularska Street our girls went to look for a place where we could lay down our wounded. We carried them to the “Dobroczynność” [Charitable Work] building at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 62, where we remained until 17 or 20 September 1944, on which day we were taken along with the entire hospital located in the “Dobroczynność” building to the hospital in Milanówek.

There is not much that I can say about the crime perpetrated by the Germans on the men taken from the “Dobroczynność” building. I know that they took three of our wounded and the hospital attendant, Drac, from the “Dobroczynność” hospital. I also heard that a dozen or so other men had been walked out to Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. Immediately after they left we heard rifle volleys right next to our house. However, neither the bodies of the victims, nor any traces of the crime itself could be found.

Throughout my stay at the “Dobroczynność” I witnessed the crimes committed by the Germans in the hospital. The Germans shot a few people, five or so, on the hospital premises just because they were walking around at an inappropriate time. They also raped wounded women and even threw themselves on paralysed old ladies. These were not Germans alone, but also Hungarians and “Ukrainians” in SS uniforms. They ran into rooms naked and held terrible orgies.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.