TERESA TYK

Dated 26 January 1947

I have been living at Remiszewska Street 37, flat 7, since 12 1939, right up to the present day. In September 1939 the Germans, having occupied Warsaw, took over the school opposite my house at Stojanowska Street 12/14. The school courtyard, enclosed by a wire fence, was left intact, while the Germans also occupied a rectangular section of field with an area of a few thousand square metres in the square of Stojanowska, Remiszewska, Myszkowska and Handlowa Streets. This they enclosed with a wire fence with a height of a few metres, and dug a ditch along the fence from the side of the road.

The entire area could be observed by the populace. From one house at Stojanowska Street opposite the Germans, from the house at Remiszewska Street 8, from the carpenter’s shop at Myszkowska Street, and from 8 other houses on Handlowa Street. It was forbidden to cross Stojanowska Street, there were lots of snares and guards had been posted.

The area fenced off by the Germans was full of deep craters created by German bombs, and also contained anti-aircraft trenches that had been dug before the War. The Germans stationed a military court at the school, and although its composition and organisation changed, it continued working from September 1939 to February 1940. There were a great many Germans on the school premises – there was a period when there were a few hundred of them, and one when their number fell to just several dozen. A few of them were older. Directives were issued to the populace by a captain, and the German doctor also lived there.

Immediately upon entering the school the Germans summoned all of the Poles living in the vicinity to the area in front of the school building, and told them that it was forbidden to cross over this area, that it had been mined, dogs should be tied up and nobody could be put up for a night, and all new arrivals to neighbouring houses must be reported to the German captain.

The Germans started holding court commencing with the area in which they had settled. There were many spies amongst the populace, and they provided the Germans with reasons for conducting executions. A father of five children, a local resident, was killed because he was accused of hanging an old rifle in his shed. A 26-year old single man from Rembiszewska Street was executed because he said ‘I will not go to work for the Krauts, it will not always be like this, this will change’. In point of fact, people were getting shot for mere trifles. For failing to hand over to the Germans larger items of military art, because the Germans ordered that everything of a military nature must be brought to the school premises.

Transports of condemned Poles arrived from afar; they were kept in the school cellars for as many as a few days, and before the execution were placed on public display in chains.

Executions would take place throughout the day, irrespective of the time. Usually a few people, but some times as many as several dozen were led to the craters. The deep bomb craters were filled with bodies and covered with earth and stones; now they are overgrown with rye. Some of the condemned people were taken to the cemetery or buried in pits near the “Hipcio” estate.

Execution salvoes rang out non-stop, the women were suffering from nervous disorders and leaving the area. A teacher lived in the school outhouse, and beneath her there resided the school caretaker, whom the Germans would use to stoke the fire. Oftentimes the caretaker’s wife could not sleep at night due to the groans of the dying victims. She too, poor woman, went mad and is now locked up in Drewnica. A Polish doctor exhumed certain of the bodies some two–three years after the executions. The local inhabitants then proceeded to the area and tried to recognise their loved ones.

Testimony given by Teresa Tykowa.
Signed with the left hand, as the right hand is broken.
Read out and undersigned by the witness, Biernacka Kazimiera.