Artists of the Grand Theatre, 1937. During the Warsaw Uprising the opera Singer, Jadwiga Fontanówna, (third from the left, in the bottom row) survived the brutal expulsion of the civilian population. Fot. National Digital Archives
Polish landowners during the horse racing event, the Warsaw Derby, July 1939. Two months later, following the German invasion of Poland, they were forced to leave their country for ever. Fot. National Digital Archives
Polish athletes prior to their departure for Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932. Janusz Kusociński (third from the left), the Olympic track events champion, was shot by the Germans in Palmiry in 1940. Fot. Leon Jarumski, National Digital Archives
Witold Hulewicz (with earphone), a poet and literary critique, killed by the Germans in Palmiry in 1941. Prior to the outbreak of the war he served as head of the Literary Section of the Polish Radio. Fot. Wacław Żyliński, National Digital Archives
Stefan Starzyński, Mayor of Warsaw, killed by the Germans in December 1939. In the picture he presents the exhibition Warsaw of the Future. Fot. National Digital Archives
Sculptor, Maria Koszotek, along with her husband and her nine children in Stara Sól the neighbourhood of Lvov. During the Second World War Stara Sól survived both Soviet and German occupation. Fot. National Digital Archives
Waldemar Gruba and Longin Wikło in their native Michniów near Kielce, 1940. In a brutal retaliatory action conducted in July 1943, the Germans burned down the entire village and murdered nearly all its inhabitants. Fot. Kielce Countryside Museum
The scout athletic event for the Łódź championship, 1936. Poland was the only country in the occupied Europe where the pursuit of sport activities was punishable by death. Fot. National Digital Archives
Members of the Romuald Traugutt Scouting Team in 1936. During the occupation the team members, involved in clandestine activity, were hunted for by Gestapo. Fot. National Digital Archives
A summer leisure on the beach of the river Vistula, Warsaw, 1927. During the Warsaw Uprising the Germans blew up the nearby Poniatowski bridge. Fot. National Digital Archives
Explore touching stories of Polish citizens - victims and witnesses of totalitarian crimes
How to search testimony database? Advanced search
”Street after street, person after person…” - project official spot
Giving voice to witnesses of totalitarian crimes
Chronicles of Terror is one of the largest collections of civilian testimonies from the occupied Europe, featuring testimonies of Polish citizens who faced both Nazism and Communism during World War II. These materials reflect the experience of thousands of Polish victims of totalitarian crimes, and of their families and loved ones. Until recently, witness depositions made before the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland were scattered and locked away in archives. Today, for the first time, they can reach a wider audience in Poland and all over the world. In 2017, testimonies concerning Soviet crimes will be added. Chronicles of Terror promote knowledge about the German and Soviet occupation of Poland and preserve the memory of victims of totalitarianism.
Testimonies in Polish
Testimonies translated into English
Available pages of the source material
Analyzed act pages
Collections
To annihilate the nation: intelligentsia, institutions, culture
Murders in the wrecked capital - executions on the former Ghetto premises
Germans in Radom – executions in Firlej
NKVD prisons – detainment, sentencing, and death
The Germans in Kielce - Crimes Committed on Castle Hill
Reign of Terror - executions in the streets of Warsaw
Kozelsk – Polish officers in Soviet captivity
Terror in the Countryside - the case of Michniów
Radom 1942 – the price of resistance
Genocide in Wola - a district sentenced to death
Pawiak - the Warsaw execution site
Treblinka - a complex for the extermination of the Polish Jews
Defying Christianity - repressions against the Church
Ochota Massacre – the suffering of the district
Crimes in the "police district" – tragedy of insurgent Warsaw
Contrary to humanity - the pacification of hospitals in Warsaw
Helplessness and horror – women in the occupied Poland
Fear and shame – the plight of female deportees
In a cattle wagon – by railroad to the East
Testimonies map
Find out what happened to the residents of your town, street or house during World War II.
Places of arrests and round-ups, addresses of hiding places, harsh prisons, concentration camps, places of torture, deportations and executions – the map enables you to trace the fate of victims of totalitarian terror.
Select location where the events described by witnesses took place
Zoom in to see locations from particular testimonies
