TERESA JEZIERSKA

Warsaw, 11 May 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), 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 Teresa Jezierska
Date and place of birth 29 June 1927 in Stebnik, Lwów county
Parents’ names Mieczysław and Zdzisława, née Kulczycka
Father’s occupation co-owner of the company “Barcikowski i S-ka”
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation student at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, gardening department
Place of residence Warsaw, Ursynowska Street 52
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Opoczyńska Street 7. I don’t remember the exact date, but on 4 or 5 August the Germans from the Stauferkaserne started burning down Rakowiecka Street together with its side streets from aleja Niepodległości in the direction of Św. A. Boboli Street, at the same time evacuating the entire populace. People with bundles in their hands exited from Rakowiecka Street into Boboli Street. On 7 August they started burning down Opoczyńska Street. Accompanied by my girlfriends, with whom I resided at the flat of Ms Sariusz-Stokowska at Opoczyńska Street 7, I went to Kielecka Street, where we stayed one night in the basement of an unfinished house. There I met a man (I don’t know his surname) who had escaped from Mokotów prison. He told me that in the last day of July or on 1 August (I don’t remember exactly now) the Germans had ordered the prisoners to dig ditches along the prison courtyard, after which they shot the diggers. Moreover, they started dragging people from their cells and executing them by the ditches, so that their bodies fell inside. Approximately one half of the prisoners perished in this way. The man also said that following the execution, the Germans abandoned the prison and proceeded to the Stauferkaserne. However, the prisoners were unable to leave the facility for three days, being closely guarded by “conscientious” wardens.

While in Kielecka Street I also learned that the Germans had killed Ms Stokowska because she had wanted to bring some objects of cultural value that were in her possession down to the basement, in order to protect them from the blaze.

The next day, passing along the barricade that had been erected in aleja Niepodległości before Różana Street, I managed to get through to the area occupied by the insurgents. Throughout August the area delimited – more or less – by Puławska Street, Różana Street and aleja Niepodległości to the Rabbit House was relatively calm. The bestiality of the Germans consisted in the fact that, taking advantage of our deficiency in anti-aircraft weapons, they would fly over the houses and fields, mercilessly firing their guns at anyone who appeared in the streets and destroying the gardens and orchards that nourished us.

Starting from the first days of September, the Germans systematically shot up street after street. In response, the Sisters of St. Elizabeth – who had a hospital in their nunnery – spread a sheet with the Red Cross on their roof. The Germans soon got the range on this clearly marked target and for two days non-stop fired incendiary rounds at the hospital. A few of the wounded died in the resulting flames. I am certain that some of the sisters could provide more details concerning this crime.

On the day of the capitulation of Mokotów, 27 September 1944, I was at Wiktorska Street 7. On the morning of that day Germans entered Wiktorska Street and ordered the entire populace to leave their houses, reportedly saying that soon, once the bandits were separated from the civilians, they would be allowed to return. We were led in a group that contained people from Odolańska Street, a part of Bałuckiego Street, and Wiktorska Street, that is, from the area up to the “Motor” Factory at Racławicka Street and from Szustra Street, where the insurgents were still holding out. Różana and Szustra streets surrendered only the next day. Our group walked along Racławicka and Pyrska streets, and through the fields to Służewiec, where we were placed on the premises of the Race Track. I would like to stress that the younger men had already been detained by the Germans in Wiktorska Street: they rejoined us the next morning. The residents of the streets in the vicinity of Dreszer Park, who had been taken from their houses the previous day, were also present at the Race Track. At noon on 28 September 1944, the people gathered at the Race Track were divided into two groups. One, comprising the elderly and sick, was loaded onto trains and taken to Pruszków, while the other – containing the younger people – proceeded to the camp in Pruszków on foot.

While in the camp, I learned that the wounded who had been carried to the first-aid station at Puławska Street, on the corner with Dolna Street, had been set on fire by the Germans. Among others, my friend Grażyna Sielużycka was a patient at the infectious diseases ward of the hospital, and she managed to escape from the burning basement into the courtyard through a window. From there she was taken by male nurses to Pruszków. I heard that she had been moved from Pruszków to some hospital in the General Government, however she has not been heard from after this.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.