HELENA SELIGA

Warsaw, 11 February 1946. Judge Alicja Germasz, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the gravity of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Helena Seliga
Name and surname Adam and Marianna
Date of birth 6 June 1901
Occupation railway worker
Education
Place of residence Armatnia Street 3, building 52
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I lived with my family in Wolska Street 123. During the first days of the uprising, our quarter was peaceful. All that could be heard was distant shooting. Our house was kept permanently closed, we all stayed in our flats, not coming out.

On 5 August 1944, at 9 in the morning, the janitor called from the yard that everyone was to leave the house. Together with my daughter I went downstairs.

We all went to the front of the gate (men, women, children), around three hundred people. There, on both sides, stood two rows of German soldiers with guns. We went to the other side of Wolska Street between these rows. A few corpses of men and children were already lying there.

We were all ordered to lie down on the ground. New groups from the neighbouring houses were being brought constantly, all of them were ordered to lie down.

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.

This was done by Poles, who were being driven by the “Ukrainians” to hurry. German soldiers had taken me to the street, where several people were already standing – men, women and children. All of us were taken to St Lawrence Church in Wola, and from there to Pruszków to the camp.

The report was read out.