JANINA ZAJKOWSKA

Warsaw, 19 January 1950. Trainee Judge trainee 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 Janina Zajkowska
Date and place of birth 23 November 1910, Białystok
Parents’ names Aleksander and Albina, née Szastko
Father’s occupation farmer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education elementary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Grzybowska Street 90, flat 14a
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in my house at Grzybowska Street 90. On 5 August 1944 two women burst into our house from Krochmalna Street, on the corner of Karolkowa Street and Wolska Street 3, and – crying – told us that the Germans were throwing grenades into basements that were full of people, burning down houses, and committing murders. All of the residents of our house and the house at no. 90a Grzybowska Street fled to the other side of Towarowa Street, which was also frequented by insurgents from our area, from the Philips factory. I stayed on Waliców Street, near Krochmalna Street, until 7 August. However, due to the intensity of the fighting in this area, we returned to our house. The neighboring houses, electric power station, corner warehouse, and the Philips factory had already been burned down and demolished. Our house was still standing. On the morning of 8 August, at around 9.00 a.m., a detachment of “Ukrainians” commanded by a German entered our house. They ordered the residents to leave the house. They immediately took all the valuables that we had on our persons. They led us along Przyokopowa Street, and at the corner of Wolska Street I saw a pile of bodies of murdered people, and also a man hanging from a lamppost. At Karolkowa Street the men were separated from the women. Amongst us they found a Jew and a Jewess, whom they led into the gateway and executed right before our eyes. They led us further on, to the Western Railway Station, from where we were transported to Pruszków. The men were taken to the church in Wola, from where in the evening they were also conveyed to Pruszków.

On 6 August 1944 a few people from our house, who on the previous day had gone to the area controlled by the insurgents, returned to our building. I later learned that they were taken by the Germans. The women were sent to Pruszków, while the men, two of whom I knew (Moczulski and Jędrzejewski), disappeared without a trace.

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