LEOKADIA ZIELONKA

Warsaw, 11 May 1949. Norbert Szuman (MA), member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Leokadia Zielonka, née Kaczmarska
Date and place of birth 12 June 1927, Kozienice, Radom county
Parents’ names Stanisław and Józefa, née Fusiek
Father’s occupation farmer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education elementary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Konduktorska Street 18, flat 18
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Huculska Street 1. The area enclosed by Puławska, Belgijska, Promenada, Belwederska and Dolna Streets and occupied by the insurgents was, from the first days of the Uprising, fired upon by the Germans from a bunker in Dworkowa Street. On 10 August (if I remember correctly) our house at Huculska Street 1, corner of Konduktorska Street 13, was hit by an incendiary shell. Since it was very old – and wooden – it quickly caught fire. I moved with my family (including two women and a child) to the house at Dolna Street 30. I remained there until 27 September 1944.

I did not witness any crimes being committed during the Uprising. I only heard from a woman who, in the first days of the Uprising (I do not remember the date), had run up to our house at Huculska Street 1, that the Germans had burst into Magiera’s house at Puławska Street 71 and started murdering the people gathered there. The woman who told me about this had just run away from that very house with her child. However, I do not know her surname.

On 26 September 1944 the Germans occupied the western side of Konduktorska Street, while the next day the entire above-mentioned area was in their hands. The insurgents either withdrew from the area, or changed into civilians clothes and remained.

More or less around noon, the entire population from our area received a Wehrmacht (or so the people said) escort and was led along Wilanowska Street (Sobieskiego Street) to Służew, and from there to the Race Track. The next day, 28 September, after the people had been divided into three groups – men, young women, and the elderly – I was led out in the second group to Włochy, from where a train took us to Pruszków. I learned from my aunt whom I met in Pruszków that the Germans had left the young men at the Race Track in Służewiec. I do not know what happened to them next.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.