STANISŁAWA KALISZ

Warsaw, [no day of the month specified] December 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Stanisława Kalisz, née Lepieszek
Date and place of birth 6 January 1897, Kąty, Sochaczew county
Parents’ names Tomasz and Karolina, née Długowska
Father’s profession coach-builder
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education one class of elementary school
Profession house caretaker
Place of residence Warsaw, Idźkowskiego Street 4, flat 13
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Idźkowskiego Street 4. During the night from 17 to 18 September, 1944, the Germans – Wehrmacht soldiers, as I recall – started occupying our street. At the time, the residents of our building were in the cellars. The Germans threw grenades down the stairs and into the basements, causing losses amongst the civilians gathered there.

On 18 September in the morning, the Germans started shouting for the people to leave the basements, however they did not stop shooting. Immediately after coming out, I saw the bodies of the young married couple, the Bercholzs.

I do not know whether there were any insurgents in our house when the Germans entered it. However, shots continued to be fired in the direction of the Germans both from our house and neighbouring buildings right up until the residents left. Although the people exiting our basement came out with their arms raised, the Germans did not cease firing. While running towards Zagórna Street, I saw a great many people being hit by bullets and falling to the ground. Finally, I managed to get to the house at Zagórna Street, on the corner of Idźkowskiego Street, where many of the residents of our house had waited out the firefight.

When the shooting died down, the Germans led us to the school at Zagórna Street 9. The sick and wounded stayed there for a longer time, while we – the healthy – were led first along aleja Szucha, where we received food, and then to the Western Railway Station, from which we were transported to Pruszków.

I would like to add that the Germans took the younger men to work in a large house – a school, I think it was – at Górnośląska Street. Many of them perished. Amongst them was my husband, Aleksander Kalisz, who perished.

On 18 September 1944 some 60 civilians whom the Germans had ordered to come out with their arms raised were killed on Idźkowskiego Street. I base my statement on the exhumation carried out in this area in May 1945. A dozen or so men stayed in the area of Zagórna and Idźkowskiego streets even longer, [being] detained for work. Amongst them was Demiańczuk (a resident of Idźkowskiego Street 5/7), an older man, who told me that he had been removing bodies from our street.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.