Artists of the Grand Theatre, 1937. During the Warsaw Uprising the opera Singer, Jadwiga Fontanówna, (third from the left, in the bottom row) survived the brutal expulsion of the civilian population. Fot. National Digital Archives
Polish landowners during the horse racing event, the Warsaw Derby, July 1939. Two months later, following the German invasion of Poland, they were forced to leave their country for ever. Fot. National Digital Archives
Polish athletes prior to their departure for Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932. Janusz Kusociński (third from the left), the Olympic track events champion, was shot by the Germans in Palmiry in 1940. Fot. Leon Jarumski, National Digital Archives
Witold Hulewicz (with earphone), a poet and literary critique, killed by the Germans in Palmiry in 1941. Prior to the outbreak of the war he served as head of the Literary Section of the Polish Radio. Fot. Wacław Żyliński, National Digital Archives
Stefan Starzyński, Mayor of Warsaw, killed by the Germans in December 1939. In the picture he presents the exhibition Warsaw of the Future. Fot. National Digital Archives
Waldemar Gruba and Longin Wikło in their native Michniów near Kielce, 1940. In a brutal retaliatory action conducted in July 1943, the Germans burned down the entire village and murdered nearly all its inhabitants. Fot. Kielce Countryside Museum
Members of the Romuald Traugutt Scouting Team in 1936. During the occupation the team members, involved in clandestine activity, were hunted for by Gestapo. Fot. National Digital Archives
About 375,000 Jews lived in Warsaw before the Second World War. During the Holocaust, the Germans transported about 300,000 people from the Warsaw Ghetto to the death camp in Treblinka. In the photograph: Świętojerska Street, the Old Town, 1926. Fot. The National Digital Archives.
The civilians and soldiers who left the “inhuman land” with General Władysław Anders (first from right in the photograph) hoped to return to a free and sovereign Poland. In the photograph: a park in Tehran, 1942. Fot. Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum.
Until recently, witness interview reports filed with the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland were scattered and locked away in archives. Today, for the first time, they can reach a wide audience both in Poland and all over the world. In 2017, first accounts of the Soviet crimes will appear in the database.
Explore touching stories of Polish citizens - victims and witnesses of totalitarian crimes
How to search testimony database? Advanced search
”Street after street, person after person…” - project official spot
Giving voice to witnesses of totalitarian crimes
Chronicles of Terror is one of the largest collections of civilian testimonies from occupied Europe and features hundreds of accounts submitted by Polish citizens, who suffered immense hardship at the hands of the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes during the Second World War. These materials reflect the personal experiences of thousands of Polish victims of totalitarian crimes, and also of their families and loved ones.
Until recently, witness depositions made before the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland were scattered and locked away in archives. The accounts of Poles – both soldiers and civilians who left the Soviet Union with General Anders’ Army – were gathered from 1943 on in the Middle East, while after the War they were reposited in the American Hoover Institution. Today, for the first time, they can reach a much wider audience – both in Poland and around the world.
Chronicles of Terror works to further knowledge of the dual occupation of Poland and memorialize the victims of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.
Testimonies in Polish
Testimonies translated into English
Available pages of the source material
Analyzed act pages
Collections
A criminal network – subcamps of KL Auschwitz
The Holocaust site – European Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau
The gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau
To annihilate the nation: intelligentsia, institutions, culture
Murders in the wrecked capital - executions on the former Ghetto premises
Germans in Radom – executions in Firlej
NKVD prisons – detainment, sentencing, and death
The Germans in Kielce - Crimes Committed on Castle Hill
Reign of Terror - executions in the streets of Warsaw
Kozelsk – Polish officers in Soviet captivity
Terror in the Countryside - the case of Michniów
Radom 1942 – the price of resistance
Genocide in Wola - a district sentenced to death
Pawiak - the Warsaw execution site
Treblinka - a complex for the extermination of the Polish Jews
Defying Christianity - repressions against the Church
Ochota Massacre – the suffering of the district
Crimes in the "police district" – tragedy of insurgent Warsaw
Contrary to humanity - the pacification of hospitals in Warsaw
Helplessness and horror – women in the occupied Poland
Fear and shame – the plight of female deportees
In a cattle wagon – by railroad to the East
Testimonies map
Find out what happened to the residents of your town, street or house during World War II.
Places of arrests and round-ups, addresses of hiding places, harsh prisons, concentration camps, places of torture, deportations and executions – the map enables you to trace the fate of victims of totalitarian terror.
Select location where the events described by witnesses took place
Zoom in to see locations from particular testimonies
