ANNA MROWIEC

Warsaw, 22 November 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 Anna Mrowiec, née Kukulska
Date and place of birth 2 August 1900, Konin
Parents’ names Władysław and Seweryna, née Węclewska
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Śniegockiej Street 10, flat 18
Criminal record none

In September 1944, I do not remember the date at all, during the period when help from Praga reached the left bank of the Vistula, I was fleeing from the advancing German units and managed to get from Cecylii Śniegockiej Street to Zagórna Street, to the “Dyeworks” at Idźkowskiego Street. After one or maybe two days the Germans occupied the area. They started throwing hand grenades into the cellars of houses. The people started to come out. A young married couple were the first to leave the cellar in which I was hiding. I walked behind them, and suddenly saw that they were dead.

I do not know whether they were hit by a stray bullet, or had been shot on purpose.

Shooting continued in the street. However, I did not observe that the Germans were shooting specifically at the people exiting the cellar. There were many bodies lying in the street. However these could have been the corpses of those killed in the course of insurgent activities. Under constant fire, I ran to the school at Zagórna Street, I do not remember the number, where the German command was said to be located. Wounded Poles were lying in the cellar, with no one but a few male nurses providing medical assistance. I remained there for approximately two days.

During this time I saw how the Germans selected men – mainly young – from the throng of civilians and stood them up against a bare wall. They would take their identity documents, and also force them to remove their coats and hats. Next, the remaining civilians were led down to the cellar. The men standing against the wall were led away somewhere, outside the school, a few at a time. I asked a female nurse where were these people being taken to? She told me that they were going to be executed. After a few minutes I heard individual shots. However, I did not see the bodies of these people. In this way the Germans led some 40–50 men away in an unknown direction.

On the same day the healthy civilian population was deported, presumably to the camp in Pruszków. I remained to help the nurses at the hospital. Two days later, once I learned that my husband, who along with the other men was being used by the Germans to perform work, had been wounded and taken to the hospital at the “Citroen” factory, I proceeded there. Male hostages and some 50 wounded remained at Zagórna, and under these terrible conditions the latter died in large numbers. After a few days the Germans came to the “Citroen” factory and ordered all of the healthy and lightly wounded to leave the hospital.

They led us along Górnośląska Street and through Ujazdowski Park to aleja Szucha, and from there to Narutowicza Square, where we spent one night. There the Germans separated the men from the women. They led us to the Western Railway Station, from where we were transported to Pruszków. The seriously wounded were conveyed later, but I do not know exactly where to.

I cannot provide any surnames, for I do not remember them. Sometimes, however, I meet up with one of the ladies who lay seriously wounded in the “Citroen” factory; she had her arm amputated. She lives at Idźkowskiego Street, and her name – if I remember correctly – is Różycka.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.