HELENA DOMAŃSKA

Warsaw, 27 July 1949. Member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman, interviewed 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 Helena Domańska, primo voto Bilko, née Porada
Date and place of birth 24 March 1919, Krajów, Opoczno county
Parents’ names Jan and Maria, née Pietrasik
Father’s occupation farmer
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education five grades of elementary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Dolna Street 12, flat 11
Criminal record none

When the Uprising broke out I was at Madalińskiego Street 27. The house stood in no-man’s land that kept changing hands from the outset of the Uprising. The nearest German unit was stationed on the school property at Kazimierzowska Street, opposite our house. Insurgent troops were in Różana Street.

On 5 August 1944, around 10.00 a. m. an SS unit appeared in the courtyard (I failed to see if they came from the direction of the school or the Wedel house located on the corner of Madalińskiego and Puławska Streets). The unit may have numbered five soldiers, but I saw only four of them. Some of the house residents were at the time staying in the basement and some took refuge in the shelter, which was built near the courtyard. There were a few people in the shelter, both men and women, about ten in number, including myself and my husband. When I learned about the Germans’ arrival from the woman who came to the shelter from the basement, the Germans had already been in our property for some time. She reported that all the men had been detained, while the women were told to run away. So she came to us. She told us to come out of the shelter because the Germans were waiting in the courtyard. Since my husband had a labor card – he worked at the post office – he was not afraid. He boldly came out, and the rest followed. The men whom the Germans had pulled out of the basement were standing in pairs in the courtyard. The Germans left all of us, the women, and one old man (I don’t know his name), in the field, and we were forbidden to enter the courtyard, while the men were herded into the carpenter’s workshop, which stood by the wing of our house that had already been burned. The Germans set the workshop alight and then opened fire in its direction. As the workshop was burning, they set fire to our apartments.

I, and other women, went to the adjacent house at Madalińskiego Street 25, in the direction of Puławska Street. Going there, I saw a pile of burning bodies thrown into the gatehouse adjoining the wall of no. 27 but located in the courtyard of the house at Madalińskiego Street 25.

I don’t know where the bodies dumped in the gatehouse were from and I am not familiar with the exact number of the men killed during the execution carried out in the courtyard of no. 27.

The following day, on 6 August 1944, I was at the execution site. There were about ten male bodies in the shed. Although they were burned, they could still be recognized. In addition, there was much ash around.

Except for me, the execution of 5 August 1944 at Madalińskiego Street 27 was witnessed or survived by Mrs. Chmielewska (she now lives at Belgijska Street 11), the son and the son-in-law of the janitor of the house, Mr. Ciarka (he lives on the corner of Chocimska and Skolimowska Streets).

I don’t know whether any exhumation was carried out on the property at Madalińskiego Street 27. All I know is that the bodies of four men were removed by their wives and buried in the cemetery in Służew.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.