JADWIGA SZYTENCHELM

Warsaw, 27 January 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 Jadwiga Szytenchelm, née Gajda
Date and place of birth 18 March 1920 in Warsaw
Parents’ names Bolesław and Józefa, née Rychowiecka
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation office worker
Place of residence Warsaw, Aleje Jerozolimskie 49, flat 42
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in my house at Wolska Street 53. On 3 August 1944 Germans – SS-men, I think – entered our house. They ordered only the young, both women and men, to come out. They led us to St. Adalbert’s Church at Wolska Street (84 or 86). Along the way, I fled into a short side street that we were passing – Syreny Street – and ran into the small manufacturing company of my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Dąbrowski. On the morning of 5 August the Germans found us there and led us away to the church. In the morning the Germans allowed the women to go to their homes for food. I went out with a few of the women. Our house (or rather the basement of our house) was already on fire. A few older women were present, and they were busy extinguishing the fire. Since my mother lived at Skierniewicka Street in the house at no. 34, I went there to see what was happening with her. The populace had not yet been evicted from Skierniewicka Street. On the whole, everything seemed peaceful there, which is why I left my mother and returned to the church, where my husband, Jan Szytenchelm, had remained. Along the way I entered my house once more. Together with Ms. Józefa Leszczyńska I went to the church. A few other ladies remained in our house; they never came back to us. On the same day, 5 August 1944, the Germans led all the men aged more or less over 15 out, even those who were crippled. They closed the church doors, so we were unable to see what happened to these men next. I know that to date not one of them has turned up.

On the next day the Germans drove everyone on foot from the church to the transit camp in Pruszków.

After the Uprising I learned that the residents of Skierniewicka Street had been murdered by the Germans. The bodies of the murdered victims were burned, so that no traces of the crime remained. Only various metal trinkets which had adorned the clothes of these people were found in the ashes of the burned-out houses. My mother perished in this way, too.

It may be that a certain young man, 19- or 20-year old Eugeniusz Brycki (residing at the Municipal Gasworks at Dworska Street 25), could provide some details concerning the crime committed at Skierniewicka Street.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.