Warsaw, 15 March 1945
Testimony given by Citizen Gizella Świtalska, born on 20 June 1909, resident at Brodzińskiego Street 11 (at the house of Citizens Lubecki).
Regarding: the murder of 57 women from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska Radium Institute at Wawelska Street 15.
From the very beginning of the Warsaw Uprising, the Radium Institute was surrounded by fascist “Ukrainians,” who continuously threatened the female patients with being shot, burned, etc. The personnel of the Institute fled on 6 August. Only one staff member, Bronisława Mazurkiewicz, had stayed behind – she currently lives in the basement of the Institute. She told me the following account.
During the first days of August a certain family – a young couple and their little son – had completely by chance sought refuge at the Institute. The “Ukrainians” killed the mother and burned her body on the first floor of the hospital, and shot the father right in front of the child, who suffered a nervous shock and ran out into the street crying, “I have no daddy, I have no mummy!” On 19 August all of the female patients were herded into the courtyard, while those who were too weak to get off their beds were killed in the basement and incinerated. Even today, the charred bones of the murder victims can be found in the courtyard of the Institute.
The patients who had been led out were arranged in threes and marched in the direction of the Zieleniak. It should be stressed that they were carrying their weaker friends on blankets. However, the “Ukrainians” killed them along the way and immediately burned the bodies. In the Zieleniak the whole column was stopped in front of a burnt-out building. Next, the women were led inside, three at a time, and one of the “Ukrainian” thugs shot the unfortunates in the back of the head with his pistol. After the execution was over, all of the bodies were placed on a pile in the aforementioned building, doused in petrol and set ablaze. Next day the bones of the murder victims were taken to a common grave in the courtyard of the Zieleniak, where the corpses of thousands of other murdered people lay.
This is how my mother, Stefania Dydyńska (aged 58), who was receiving treatment at the Institute, perished.
I testify the truth. I have read the report before signing it.