On 20 February 1948, citizen Anna Filipowicz, domiciled in Warsaw at Dymińska Street 9, flat 37, appeared on summons before the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, and gave the following testimony in the presence of Andrzej Janowski, the clerk of the Commission:
At the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising I was in my flat at Sierakowska Street 3, but since the Germans were approaching, I moved to the St. John of God Hospital. It was, if I remember correctly, in the second week of the uprising. Other inhabitants of that house remained there; I did not meet any of my neighbors in the Old Town during the uprising and I have not met any of them since the liberation of Warsaw, to this day. I have been looking for some people from my house, but nevertheless I have not managed to find any of the inhabitants of the house at Sierakowska Street 3.
I remained in the St. John of God Hospital for a few days, until its final evacuation. I don’t remember when it was.
From there I moved to an already organized insurgent hospital at Długa Street 7. I stayed there for a few days, but since I was not closely affiliated with the hospital, I cannot provide any details concerning its organization.
From Długa Street 7, I moved (I don’t remember the date) to the hospital at Freta Street 10. I noticed that some of the injured people from the hospital at Długa Street 7 were transferred to Freta Street 10 at that time. I recall that some of the injured people were lying in the St. Hyacinth’s Church, some in the chapter house beyond the church, and the majority in a large corridor of the Home.
How many injured people there were, I cannot tell; one of the nuns from the St. John of God Hospital kept a record, but I don’t know her name. Anyway, the injured people were lying tightly packed together, and new ones were coming all the time.
There were many doctors working in that hospital, a qualified nurse who was called sister “Maria”, and a few paramedics – one of them was called “Wanda” – but I cannot give any names of the members of the medical-sanitary staff. Maintenance matters were being handled by sister “Wanda,” a teacher by profession. She asked me to help her and we were working together, performing such tasks as feeding the injured people, washing them etc. I worked in this capacity until the German troops entered the premises. This happened on 2 September 1944 before noon, after the retreat of the insurgent troops. I was in the corridor at the time, so I didn’t know where the German soldiers had come from.
I can’t say what kind of unit it was, I know only that some of them spoke German, and some spoke Russian or Ukrainian. The latter ones (speaking Russian or Ukrainian) were rather in the majority. That moment made a profound impression on me, I began to feel scared, so I cannot describe in detail the following events.
At one point I noticed that the soldiers led some twenty healthy men with their hands up along the corridor from the direction of Stara Street. These were civilians, and they were taken in the direction of Freta Street. What happened to them afterwards, I do not know. Apart from the injured people and me, father Kulesza, sister “Wanda”, sister “Maria”, and a few people from the maintenance and sanitary staff (including one feldsher) stayed in the corridor. The doctors had already left, but I don’t know what had happened to them.
One of the soldiers ordered me to search the injured people, the “bandits” as he put it (although we told them that it was a civilian hospital), for weapons, which were not found. For the time being no harm was done to the injured people, but I heard that the soldiers were raping the female staff.
At one point in the morning, the hospital began to burn. Whether it was purposefully set on fire by the German soldiers, I do not know. We began taking out the injured people then. I was closer to the exit onto Stara Street. There were a few people who were taking out the injured. The fire was spreading from St. Hyacinth’s Church, so one could reach neither the chapter house nor the end of the corridor on the side of the church, and the injured who were lying there had to be left. In total, we took out some hundred people whom we placed on mattresses etc. in Stara Street.
During this entire time I was in the corridor and I did not see what was going on in the yard. When we finished our task, it was already evening.
In the evening a few soldiers, who were speaking Russian or Ukrainian, took me and two female paramedics (I don’t know their names or surnames) and led us in the direction of the Castle, where some German soldier put us in a room in a house that had not been burnt. In the morning the same soldier took me back to Stara Street. Those two paramedics who had been locked up with me remained there. I don’t know what happened to them, as I have not seen them since. When I came back to Stara Street to the injured people, I learned from sister “Wanda” that thus far, the German soldiers had not harassed the injured people in any way; they had been looking for women, but in vain, as they had managed to hide from them. I learned from sister “Wanda” that sister “Maria” was looking after the injured people with her. I also saw for myself father Kulesza and the above-mentioned feldsher, but I didn’t notice any other staff members.
Father Kulesza decided to appeal to the German command for help for the injured people, so the three of us – father Kulesza, the feldsher and I – went together to some house on the right side of Nowy Zjazd Street. As we were walking there, I saw burning houses, but I didn’t see any civilians. Father Kulesza spoke with some German, but I don’t know what they said; nevertheless, it must have been unsuccessful since we had to go to Wola, as the German posts did not want to let us go back to Stara Street. We went to the hospital on Wolska Street (I think it was St. Stanislaus Hospital). Father Kulesza and the feldsher stayed in the hospital, and I went to St. Adalbert’s Church and then to the Pruszków transit camp, from which I was deported to Germany.