Warsaw, 10 March 1946. Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, has interviewed the person stated below as a witness.
Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the importance of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Maria Aniela Kamińska née Rykiel, married |
| Names of parents | Józef and Zofia née Bernacik |
| Date of birth | 27 August 1922 in Warsaw |
| Occupation | housewife, husband’s occupation: construction worker |
| Education | seven grades of elementary school |
| Place of residence | Feliński Street 21, flat 6 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| State and nationality | Polish |
On 4 August 1944 I was a patient of St. Lazarus Hospital. I was on the ground floor in the K pavilion (on the side of Leszno Street). On the following day I moved to the shelter in pavilion K, located next to the hospital kitchen.
The shelter was crowded; along with the wounded and the sick there were civilians and hospital staff.
I didn’t know anyone. I don’t know if the insurgents had left the hospital area or when that happened.
It was already dark when several German soldiers rushed into the shelter, separated the hospital staff from the others and took this group with them. They drove the mobile patients and the civilians into the courtyard. I was led into the courtyard by two soldiers who grabbed me under my arms, and joined the group standing by the wall. I stood next to Wiesława Chełmińska, whom I had recently met; she was there with her mother.
I saw soldiers throwing grenades and shooting in the direction of the windows of the shelter, where the seriously wounded and sick had stayed. After a while, they ordered several people from our group to go down to the basement adjacent to the one from which we had been removed. Then they started to take groups of several people. I was at the end of the group. When it was my turn, I knew, going down the stairs, why I was being led down there. The light was on in the basement; there were a number of wards along the corridor. Through the open doors of three wards I could see corpses lying on the floors. Armed soldiers were standing at the doors. The three persons walking in front of me stepped on the corpses, and the soldiers at the door shot them in the backs of their heads. Seeing that it was an execution, I began to scream and resist. A soldier took me and a woman following me by the arms and pushed us both into the first ward in the basement, to the left of the entrance. I fell down right at the doorstep, without being wounded. I felt the other woman fall on my legs. After that, the people following were coming in, being shot right afterwards. There were several corpses lying on me. As I was lying next to a locker with bandages, I threw some of them to the men who were alive but wounded. There could have been approximately fifty corpses in the ward. At some point I heard footsteps. Two soldiers poured some liquid over the corpses lying by the door, and then set fire to them. The fire erupted. The wounded men rushed to escape. The soldiers chased them; I don’t know if they were successful in escaping.
I took advantage of the fact that there were no German soldiers around; together with a wounded man who had stayed in there, I jumped over the burning corpses. The man ran into the yard, I rushed into another ward in the basement. I found there some five corpses and a demented woman.
The next day, on 6 August in the morning, I met Chełmińska, who had also survived the execution, and a wounded Russian man who died just afterwards. The Germans had noticed the demented woman and they led her into the courtyard. I saw burning corpses in three wards in the basement.
I cannot estimate the number of people who had been shot.
On the same day, taking advantage of the fact that there were no German soldiers in the yard at the moment, I went through it, with Chełmińska, to the basement or shelter next to the hospital kitchen, where Chełmińska’s ill sister and other seriously ill patients had remained. I saw the corpses of Chełmińska’s sister and of other wounded people.
I cannot estimate their number, but they were few, compared to the number of corpses in the basement where the execution had taken place.
We were wandering in the building and in the courtyard, fleeing from German soldiers, for several days. But they eventually caught us and led us to a group of civilians who were standing in front of the Karol and Maria Hospital. Then we were led to the West Railway Station [Dworzec Zachodni], from there to the transit camp in Pruszków, and after, to forced labour in Wrocław. I returned to the country on 6 June 1945.
At that the report was concluded and read out.