JAN PUTKOWSKI

Warsaw, 29 August 1947. Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jan Putkowski
Parents’ names Dominik and Franciszka, née Pawlak
Date of birth 29 June 1909, Białemisztale, Province of Warsaw
Religion Roman Catholic
Place of residence Warsaw, Bończy Street 6, flat 17
Education vocational school
Profession shopkeeper, shop owner
Citizenship and nationality Polish

During the Warsaw Uprising I lived in the shop at Czerniakowska Street, opposite the national insurance hospital, which was located in the ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) building and which displayed a Red Cross flag. During this period the hospital housed wounded insurrectionists and civilians.

Once the insurrectionists withdrew, on 13 September 1944, the Germans bombed the hospital. Nine bombs fell, the majority onto the central part of the building. They killed the purchasing manager and a few dozen of the wounded. The wounded, buried under the falling rubble, died in part through suffocation, and in part because we were unable to reach them and provide assistance. Following the bombing, tanks drove up to the hospital from the direction of the gasworks, but were stopped by staff waving white flags. Almost immediately, the men present started to carry the wounded to the premises of the gasworks, and from there to Smolna Street 12 and to St. Roch’s Hospital, and further on to the monastery of the Nuns of the Visitation and St. Stanisław’s Hospital (the Wolski Hospital). Following the bombing of the ZUS building, a detachment of German soldiers – mainly "Ukrainians" and Kalmucks – burst into the hospital. I heard that a few female nurses were raped at the time, but I don’t know their surnames. The crews of the tanks that drove up to the hospital had SS insignia and raspberry-coloured lapel badges. Judging by their speech and behaviour, they were "Ukrainians". They robbed me of my watch.

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