STEFANIA BOLKO

Warsaw, 6 April 1960. Judge [no surname], acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Forename and surname Stefania Bolko, née Mącik
Date and place of birth 1 September 1895, Łódź
Names of parents Konstanty and Cecylia, née Borowska
Father’s occupation craftsman, foundry worker
State affiliation Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education 4 grades at elementary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Wincentego Street 18, flat 7

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Wincentego Street 18. On the first day of August 1944, at around 5.00 p.m., two or three female paramedics entered the basements of our house and set up a table for dressing the wounded. The insurgents used our house as a base for sorties. The shooting started. Young boys with white and red armbands ran towards the overpass. The Germans, who were standing higher up, behind the overpass, made short work of the insurgents. Two young insurgent officers, wounded, burst into our post; they had managed to survive. We dressed their wounds. We got news that German SS-men were surrounding our house.

We quickly closed down the first-aid post, and the men buried the insurgents’ weapons in the basements. Our house was surrounded. Residents stayed in the basements. The Germans ordered everyone to come out. They did not carry out a search, and so some of the men did not obey the order. They ordered everyone to line up against the wall of our house from the side of Oszmiańska Street. They took three men from our group aside: the two insurgents (I did not know their surnames) and our son, 14-year old Janusz. The insurgents were wounded. The Germans recognized [them], and thus shot them dead on the spot. Whereupon I, fearing that our son would suffer the same fate, started to cry. One of the Germans came up to me, and when I told him that it was my son standing there, he allowed him to rejoin us. After some time the Germans allowed us to go back in the house.

I heard that on the same day, that is 1 August 1944, at Wincentego Street 48 or 50 the Germans executed a dozen or so people.

I did not hear anything about other crimes committed by the Germans in our area during the Uprising.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.