STANISŁAWA TARAN

Warsaw, 8 February 1946. Investigating Judge Alicja Germasz, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Stanisława Taran
Date of birth 3 March 1896
Parents’ names Paweł and Julia
Education three classes of elementary school
Place of residence Warsaw, Dembińskiego Street, Bieniewicka Street 4, flat 25
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I lived with my family in my own house at Marii Kazimiery Street 23. I was also there during the Warsaw Uprising. On 14 September 1944, the bombardment of Marymont became severe, and the adjacent houses began to burn. At around 2.00 a.m., the insurgents retreated from our district, leaving behind only civilians. I was in the shelter in our garden with my husband, in-laws and other inhabitants of our house, some 30 people in total. From there, I saw that at one point the German soldiers and the “Ukrainians” began to whack on the door of the house at the rear of our property at Dembińskiego Street 2/4. When the door was opened, people began to leave one by one (men, women, children). A few steps away from the door, each person was shot in the back of the head by a German soldier. Several dozen people were killed in this fashion. The rest were led into the fields. Shortly after, we heard a volley of shots from the direction they had gone (there was a priest among them). I learned later from the owner of that house that the men had been separated from the women in that group, and all the men were promptly executed. The name of the owner of that house is Stanisława Rogalska (Dembińskiego Street 2/4). I then saw the “Ukrainians” storm into the school building at Marii Kazimiery Street 21 and tell all the people (there were only a few) to go out into the yard. In the meantime, our house began to burn, so we left the shelter (some dozen people, as the rest had previously dispersed) and went to the nearby school. From there, I saw the events which I am now describing, from a window. The Germans told the people grouped in the school yard to go to Marii Kazimiery Street; there, they grouped them with those expelled from Marii Kazimiery Street 21, and ordered everyone to proceed down the burning street. Some protested and turned back, but the “Ukrainians” began to shoot in all directions. Everyone was killed. A woman with a child in a stroller – Stanisława Buczyńska from Dembińskiego Street 2/4 – was among the people driven from the school. She was executed along with the others on Marii Kazimiery Street. A moment later, I saw a “Ukrainian” approach the stroller and shoot the child with a rifle.

We stayed in the school until the following day. On 15 September, a tank came near the school and opened heavy fire, destroying the upper floors. Then we went back to the shelter at Marii Kazimiery Street 23, except for my husband; I didn’t know where he had gone. For three nights in a row I went out to look for him. Then I stumbled upon the bodies of people who had been executed in front of Dembińskiego Street 2/4; there were several dozen scattered corpses of men, women and children. I recognized my brother-in-law Jan Buhatewicz, his son Władysław, and many inhabitants of the house at Dembińskiego Street 2/4, whom I knew. I finally found my husband in a well by the house at Marii Kazimiery Street 29. We stayed in the shelter for one night with a dozen other people. Then a German soldier ordered us to leave the shelter, but he let us go. We went to Bielany, from where we were sent to the Pruszków camp.

The report was read out.