WANDA SZYDŁOWSKA

Karaków, 3 September 1947. Investigating Judge Tadeusz Głodkiewicz interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Wanda Szydłowska née Wdowiszewska
Age 56
Names of parents Jan and Maria n ée Maurizio
Place of residence Kraków, św. Filipa Street 5, flat 5
Occupation unemployed
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

Until 1 December 1941, I had lived at Dworkowa Street 3 in Warsaw. After, until December 1942, at Puławska Street 59, and finally, until the outbreak of the Uprising, at Szczygla Street 3. The house at Dworkowa Street 3, as well as the two neighboring houses numbers 5 and 7, was taken over by the German gendarmerie in December 1941; they stayed there until the outbreak of the Uprising. I cannot remember what gendarmerie unit it was. I only remember that there was a sign which read: “Feldpost: gendarmerie”. I believe that some 40 gendarmes were accommodated in the house at Dworkowa Street 3. I do not know how many gendarmes lived in the other two houses. I any case, I recall that there were a lot of them. As regards the gendarmes, I only knew three of them: a certain Pech, who initially was a Lieutenant and then Captain, and who came from the environs of Szlezwik, which I heard from the man himself. There was a certain Bodenstätt, who was a sergeant, I think, and came from the town of Fulda; and a certain Rosner, who was a non-commissioned officer, I think, and, if memory serves me right, spoke fluent Polish. I also knew other gendarmes, but only by sight. Presently, I cannot describe their appearance. I do not know if the unit described above carried out the mass execution of the civilians from the houses in Dworkowa Street and Puławska Street 49 and 51 on 3 August 1944, because at that time I lived in Szczygla Street.

Likewise, I do not know if the German authorities announced in the Kurier Warszawski newspaper that the residents of the house at Puławska Street 49 were classified as hostages, who were to guarantee that the insurgents grouped at Oleksińska Street 4 would not come to Puławska Street. It was not until August 1947 that I learned from a woman, whom I only knew by sight (I do not know her name or address), that during the Uprising, a group of insurgents who exited the sewer near Dworkowa Street was murdered in Grottgera Street by the gendarmerie unit staying in Warsaw in the houses in Dworkowa Street. I cannot recall how many people that group had comprised, but I think that the woman mentioned the number of 300 people.

I have no further information about these events.

The report was read out.