ZOFIA MAŁKOWSKA

On 3 November 1949, in Warsaw, [no name for the person who heard the testimony] heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Zofia Małkowska née Marżeńska
Date and place of birth 1880, Jasieniec
Parents’ names Adam and Józefa née Mirek
Occupation of the father caretaker with the municipal council
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education illiterate
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Morawska Street 4, flat 3
Criminal record none

During the Warsaw Uprising, I was in my house at Morawska Street 4. As the neighboring houses were being burnt down and destroyed, my neighbors, friends and relatives sought shelter in the basement of my house. On 14 September 1944, when the Germans launched an attack on Marymont, there were several dozen people gathered in my basement, mainly women and children. There were no insurgents in our house and no shots were fired from it at the Germans. In the afternoon, soldiers in German uniforms speaking German and Russian approached our house and shouted to the people gathered in the basement to get out.

When we left the house, they separated the women and children from the men, whom they placed in the yard. After some time they led the group of women in the direction of Bielany. I lingered in the yard and then I walked slowly at the back of the group of women, and on the way I stopped several times and finally broke off from the group and began to walk slowly in the direction of my house. When I reached it some three hours later, I saw the men lying in the yard; it turned out that they had been executed. There were ten of them, if I remember correctly.

In the basement of my house I found my husband, now deceased, who had not left it at all and was thus saved, and a retired policeman, who had been in the group of people executed but managed to survive. Czapiga told me all about it then and showed me his bloodied coat. When I came back, my house was on fire, just like all the houses in that area.

We stayed there together for a few more days, but the soldiers ordered us, as well as other people staying in the vicinity, to leave Warsaw through Bielany. Most people were sent to Pruszków. We managed to avoid that fate.