STANISŁAWA TOSKA

Warsaw, 15 December 1949. Trainee judge Irena Skonieczna, 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 Toska, née Wiśniewska
Date and place of birth 17 March 1904, Warsaw
Parents’ names Antoni and Rozalia, née Wiśniewska
Father’s profession farmer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation midwife nurse
Place of residence Warsaw, Czapelska Street 44, flat 6
Criminal record none

From the beginning of the Uprising I was a nurse at the field hospital of the unit commanded by captain “Kryska”. Initially, our hospital was located in the house at Szara Street 5/7. Next we moved to Czerniakowska Street, to the Paid Work House [for the Elderly] at the corner of Zagórna Street. Due to the overcrowding, we left this facility and went to Zagórna Street 9, to the school building. There, just as in the Paid Work House, we ran a regular hospital that was administered by Dr Kubik, currently a major in the Polish Army.

On 16 September 1944 the Germans occupied the hospital. On the evening of that day they herded all the healthy people – the medical personnel and walking wounded – to the upper floors. The severely wounded, some 80 in all, remained in the basements, completely unattended. On the morning of the next day the Germans led all of the people who had been gathered upstairs into Górnośląska Street. They left only me and Janina Paluchowska (currently resident at Aleje Ujazdowskie 15), an employee of the Ministry of Justice (she runs a snack bar in one of the courts), in the school.

Two days later, that is on 18 September, the Germans committed a crime at Idźkowskiego Street. They ordered the people from the captured houses in Idźkowskiego Street to come out. At the corner of Zagórna and Idźkowskiego streets they had set up a machine gun. A German fired it at the people as they ran out. Those who ran in the direction of the school at Zagórna Street 9 survived. This whole massacre took place right before my eyes. Soon after, a great many seriously wounded people turned up at our hospital. Those who could walk were marched off on the same day along Górnośląska Street. The Germans used me and the other people whom they had attached to our hospital to gather the wounded and killed from this area. Later on I was forced to collect Germans, under constant fire.

Once, while collecting the wounded, I walked up to the “Syrena” club by the Vistula. There I saw the bodies of some 30 young people of both sexes who had been hanged on belts in the boatroom.

The Germans would frequently bring young boys and girls to the school courtyard joining the Paid Work House with the school and execute them on the spot. Thus, there was an enormous pile of bodies in the courtyard. The Germans would shoot patients in their beds equally often, especially if they didn’t like something about them.

On around 27 September 1944 the hospital at Zagórna Street 9 was completely closed down. Those who could walk carried the severely wounded to the hospital in the Citroen factory at Czerniakowska Street. From there, the healthy and the walking wounded were taken to Górnośląska Street. I was the last to leave Zagórna Street, together with a female midwife. Some six or eight severely wounded people remained there in their beds. Right before my eyes a German walked up to each bed in turn, shooting the patients in the head. I witnessed him executing two young men and a handful of elderly people who had not managed to move in time.

We exited the Citroen factory leaving the seriously wounded lying in the basement and passed through Górnośląska Street to aleja Szucha. From there we proceeded along Rakowiecka Street, Żwirki i Wigury Street and through Pole [Mokotowskie] to the hostel on Narutowicza Square. There the Germans carried out a selection of the men. They left five Jews in the courtyard and drove the rest on foot to the Western Railway Station. From there they took us to Pruszków.

I do not know what happened to the Jews. Maybe Dr Szpilman-Załęski (pulmonary and heart diseases), whose son was in the courtyard, could provide some information.

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