Warsaw, 29 March 194[…]. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Judge Janina Skoczyńska, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Forename and surname | Helena Blaźnik, née Sobol |
| Date and place of birth | 24 February 1908, Drwalew, Grójec county |
| Names of parents | Jan and Helena, née Wojdalska |
| Occupation of the father | laborer |
| State affiliation and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Education | elementary school |
| Occupation | housewife (husband is a laborer) |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Kielecka Street 29a, flat 1 |
| Criminal record | none |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in my flat at Kielecka Street 29a. From 1 to approximately 10 August 1944 (I cannot give an exact date), the insurgents occupied the whole area around our house, bounded by the following streets: Andrzeja Boboli, Rakowiecka and aleja Niepodległości.
On about 10 August the insurgents retreated behind Madalińskiego Street. A few days later, German soldiers entered Kielecka Street from Rakowiecka Street, and they began to set fire to the houses along Kielecka and Narbutta streets, one by one, having first led the residents in the direction of Rakowiecka Street. As far as I know, the Germans – I think they were SS men – did not carry out any executions during this action.
When the Germans reached our house, one of the residents, Jadwiga Duszowa, who spoke German very well, managed to get the Germans to agree not to burn our house. The Germans consented and in effect they did not take any residents from the semi-detached houses at Kielecka Street 29 and 29a. Besides, the Germans did not continue any further down Kielecka Street. After this action they took up quarters in the house on the corner of Opoczyńska and Narbutta streets, on Narbutta and Łowicka streets, and in the Wawelberg and Rotwand school on the corner of Narbutta and Andrzeja Boboli streets. The “Ukrainians” were stationed, just as they had been earlier, in the house on the corner of Narbutta Street and aleja Niepodległości.
On 22 August two women who were in our house at the time went out to the street in order to check what state their flats on Narbutta Street were in. Shortly afterwards they returned with two German soldiers who were speaking Polish. It was said that they were “Ukrainians”. They came to the ground floor and took my 17-year-old son, Zdzisław Blaźnik, from my flat, and from another flat on the ground floor they took two other men, of whom one was called Antoni Irzykowski. The “Ukrainians” took all three of them along Narbutta Street in the direction of aleja Niepodległości. Then – it was about 3.00 p.m. – Jadwiga Duszowa, who had acquaintances among the Germans in the Stauferkaserne, went there in order to obtain the release of the men from our house who had been taken by the “Ukrainians”. There she learned that the Germans could not intervene at that moment because they were preoccupied with an execution in one of the houses on Rakowiecka Street, in the vicinity of the prison. However, Duszowa was promised in the Stauferkaserne that after some time the Germans would come to our house and bring about the release of the three men who had been taken from us by the “Ukrainians”.
However, instead of the Germans, a unit composed of some 10 armed “Ukrainians” came to our house. It was on 22 August 1944 before 5.00 p.m. I hid in the boiler house then. From there, through a small window, I saw the “Ukrainians” taking a number of stolen goods out of the house. Some time later I heard the sound of a few short gunshots coming from the building. Towards the evening I realized that the house was on fire, and – taking advantage of the absence of the “Ukrainians” – I hid in the adjacent garden, where I met one of the women who had been in our house. Until 17 September I was hiding out in the neighborhood, having found some of the residents of our house. On 17 September 1944 I was taken by the Germans, along with the others from the part of our house that had not been burnt, so Kielecka Street 29. Earlier I had been to the basement of my house, that is, Kielecka Street 29a. I had smelled the stench of decomposing corpses there.
From the house at Kielecka Street 29 we were taken – some 25 people in total – to Rakowiecka Street, where we were joined to a transport of people from Czerniaków and deported to the Pruszków camp.
When I returned to Poland in May 1945, I learned that seven corpses had been found on the premises of our house. These were the bodies of the people who had been murdered by the “Ukrainians” on 22 August 1944; there were my parents, Jan and Helena Sobol, four women (including Jadwiga Duszowa), and an 11-year-old boy, the son of Duszowa.
I found the body of my son and the two other men who had been taken by the “Ukrainians” in a grave at Kwiatowa Street 28.
At this the report was concluded and read out.