CELINA NICMAN

Warsaw, 2 April 1946. Judge Stanisław Rybiński, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness, who then testified as follows:


Name and surname Celina Nicman néeTamborek
Names of parents Jakub and Antonina née Porada
Date of birth 29 April 1910
Occupation housewife
Education elementary school
Place of residence Warsaw, Chmielna Street 102, flat 83
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

My husband Józef Nicman (born on 5 January 1909) and I lived in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building because my husband had worked as an electro-technician since 1928, most recently at the Brühl Palace. Our only son, Wiesław, was with us.

After the capitulation of Warsaw we remained in the Brühl Palace and the Germans left my husband in his post. I am sure that he belonged to the anti-German underground, although he never confessed it to me. Suddenly, on 10 March 1944, my husband was arrested at work by a Gestapo officer, who came for him with an agent. They searched our flat but didn’t find anything. I was also under house arrest for a day and a half, and was subsequently removed from the flat after two and a half weeks.

The Germans said that my husband worked in the underground – he was in intelligence – and had been arrested at the order of governor Ludwig Fischer. While at her job, Irena Dziewanowska, a caretaker, overheard the Germans reading out cards with Polish names, including my husband’s, the first in order. She told me of this towards the end of February 1944.

A German, an official named Tron, approached Fischer to have my husband released because he was needed for work and they had no one to replace him with. Fischer said that the case had been taken over by the Gestapo and that he no longer had any say at that point.

My husband was in Pawiak prison. On 28 March, they accepted a package for him from me. They did not accept any more packages from me, and my husband disappeared without a trace.

On 29 March 1944, there was a notice announcing the execution of 80 people without giving any names.

I don’t know the current whereabouts of Irena Dziewanowska.

Read out.