Warsaw, Monday, February 27, 1950. Janusz Gumkowski, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Maria Bańkowska, née Feldman |
| Date and place of birth | 17 January 1916, Warsaw |
| Parents’ names | Henryk and Ewa, née Witkind |
| Father’s occupation | Clerk |
| State affiliation | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Evangelical-Reformed Church |
| Education | Journalist |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Solec Street 101, flat 9 |
| At the | moment when the Warsaw Uprising began, I was in the house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 75, |
at the corner with Chałubińskiego Street. The Germans occupied our house from the second or third day of the Uprising. Until that day it had stood in no-man’s-land. The insurgents’ positions were on the other side of the railway track, on Chmielna Street, from where they fired onto our house. On 2 or 3 August, I don’t remember at what time of the day, German tanks shielded by Polish civilians drove along Aleje Jerozolimskie in the direction of Grójecka Street. Through a slit in the chipboard that screened the shop window, I saw men sitting on a German tank. They were wearing streetcar caps. I don’t remember whether civilians were also being marched in front of the tank. My husband, Stanisław Bańkowski (he lives at Solec Street 101, flat 9), had been standing for some time by the shop window. He can confirm my testimony, and so can Zofia Małolepsza, the owner of the shop (I think she still lives there). I remember them saying that people, including women, were driven in front of the tanks. I do not know what happened to those people.
Until 12, 13 or 14 August 1944 (I don’t remember the exact date), we stayed with the Germans at Aleje Jerozolimskie 75. The men from our house were rounded up into the basements while the women were herded together on the first floor. However, we had some freedom of movement left. The men were under stricter watch than the women.
On 13 August we, all the inhabitants of our house, were thrown out into the street. The Germans were believed to have been ordered to shoot all the men from the houses that they occupied. The German headquarters were lodged in the houses at Aleje Jerozolimskie, including our own, and were based in the Main Railway Station.
I don’t know if all the houses were, just like ours, occupied only by Wehrmacht soldiers or if there were also SS men. I heard that the order had been carried out in the surrounding houses. Salomea Edelsztein, a philosopher by education, can provide more details regarding the crime. Her husband was shot in the house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 73. I will try to provide her address in the foreseeable future.
The inhabitants of our house went down Chałubińskiego Street to Nowogrodzka Street, as the Germans stationed in our house told us to go to the Baby Jesus Hospital. Some stayed in the hospital and the rest went in the direction of Ochota district. After the Uprising, I met with people from the latter group. They, luckily, had managed to get out of town. None of the people I met had passed through the transit camp in Pruszków.
I stayed at the hospital until 25 August 1944, that is, until the day of the evacuation of the hospital. The healthy men, including my husband, were taken out by the Germans on the second day after our arrival at the hospital, on 14 or 15 August. They ended up in the transit camp in Pruszków, from which some of them escaped; some managed to get out as sick people and some were deported to Germany.
The hospital was evacuated on foot to the Western Railway Station. Only the seriously ill remained and, if I am not mistaken, were killed by the Germans.
We were taken in two groups from the Western Railway Station to Pruszków whence on the same day we came to Tworki.
At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.