HELENA ZAWADZKA


Warsaw, 15 May 1945. Testimony of citizen Helena Zawadzka, born on 22 April 1892, domiciled in Legionowo, Kościuszki Street 136.


The uprising in Legionowo began on 1 August 1944, and the insurgents managed to blow up a German passenger train. In revenge, German gendarmes stormed into our house on 3 August and told all the people to leave their flats. On the same day they took 27 men and 42 women with children of all ages from the Legionowo station. We were put in a freight train, but as the insurgents began shooting and a fight with the Germans ensued, we spent four hours lying under the train. At 11.00 a.m. we were driven into cattle wagons and taken to Modlin. At the Modlin station we were formed in fours and led to the fort, and we were being beaten, spat on and called names all the way.

We were walking for a long time along some fort, but eventually we were turned back by a German soldier and taken to a road where a car was waiting, and we were transported in that car to a third fort in Pomiechówek. When we arrived, we were told to get out and lie with our faces to the ground. We were in terrible fear of death all the time. Then we were told to sit down and they began to interrogate us. They were asking us whether we knew who was operating in Legionowo. Men were being interrogated separately in a tunnel. After returning they were lying again with their faces to the ground. I don’t know how this interrogation looked. I saw that they had their overcoats, hats and identity papers taken away.

Then women and children were released, and men had to stay under the pretense of some job to be done.

On 26 April I learned about the discovery of a mass grave of 26 railwaymen from Legionowo. The grave was in Nowy Dwór, near the starch factory.

When I arrived there I recognized the corpse of my husband. Each of the executed had his hands tied with wire, and apart from that they were tied in twos. They did not have eyes, which had been plucked out, and some had charred cheeks and chests. I think that the wretches were being buried alive, as the graves were very deep and the corpses were covered with several layers of debris and then with earth.

I testify truthfully; I have read before signing.