LIDIA WIŚNIEWSKA

On 27 January 1948 in Łódź Examining Judge S. Krzyżanowska interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Lidia Wiśniewska
Age 38 years
Parents’ names Adela and Gustaw
Place of residence Łódź, Kilińskiego Street 154
Occupation doctor
Religion Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

During the Warsaw Uprising, in its first phase, I was at the John of God Hospital, where I had previously been employed. On 14 or 15 August, since the hospital had been bombed on a few occasions, all of the wounded were evacuated to the hospital at St. Hyacinth’s Church. I would like to add that a few days earlier all of the severely wounded had been evacuated to the hospital at Długa Street 7. The mentally ill left the premises of the bombed hospital together with the civilians. After a few days, a number of Sisters of Charity returned with a group of mentally ill patients and situated themselves in Pavilions 5 and 6.

Later on, when I had left Warsaw and found myself in Piotrków, a Superior from the Hospital of the Holy Trinity told me that all of the mentally ill perished, together with three of the sisters. It was said that they had been shot by the Germans. I managed to stay only a few days more in the hospital on the premises of Hyacinth’s Church. Patients were lying in the catacombs, while others were arranged aboveground, in the lateral naves. I don’t know if any patients were placed in other locations.

When I arrived at the hospital at Długa Street 7, there were some one hundred wounded at Freta Street. Dr Franciszek Szumigaj continued to work at Freta Street, and he remained there after I had left. He currently resides in Sopot.

I lasted at Długa Street 7 until the Germans entered. In my opinion, there were some 150 to 200 wounded at that time. They lay in the cellars, on the ground floor, and even on the first floor. Immediately after their arrival, the Germans ordered everyone to leave the hospital. The medical personnel had already left the hospital on the previous day, so that only the sisters and I remained. When the order to evacuate the hospital was given, the less severely wounded also started to leave.

I don’t know what happened to the remaining wounded. I cannot give an accurate number of the wounded who remained. Some ten wounded from my medical section (the ground floor from the side of the courtyard), being serious cases, must have been left behind. My section was near the paper-mill or some printing office. While in Pruszków, the wife of one of the wounded men for whom I was caring (I don’t remember his surname however) told me that these wounded had been executed. One of the wounded in my section was Kuśmierczyk, the caretaker of the John of God Hospital. I heard from other hospital employees that Kuśmierczyk perished in the hospital.

The report was read out.