Warsaw, 11 October 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Helena Walentyna Hołówko, née Derewojed |
| Date and place of birth | 2 February 1889, Płoskirów (Podolia) |
| Parents’ names | Ludwik and Michalina, née Kluczewska |
| Father’s profession | pharmacist |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Education | university |
| Profession | doctor of medicine, paediatrician |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, aleja 3 Maja 2, flat 111 |
| Criminal record | none |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in my flat in the house at aleja 3 Maja 2. Around 5.00 p.m. a group of insurgents numbering some 50 young boys entered the premises of our house. They were poorly armed. They had only two machine guns and some small arms.
The defense of our house lasted around five days, I do not now remember the dates. The nearest German units, mainly artillery, were stationed on Poniatowskiego Bridge. Our house was under constant fire, so that it was completely impossible to remain in the flats on the side of the bridge. All attempts at returning to the flats ended in death. Holes had been punched through the walls of the basementsof our house so that all the basementscould remain in contact. Some 300 people were gathered there. They were not residents of our house – the majority had ended up there by chance, mainly mothers with children from other streets in Powiśle, while we also had a detachment of insurgents.
During the first few nights the insurgents made forays from our house to the viaduct. Many of them returned wounded. Therefore I set up – with the assistance of three female nurses and the daughter of Dr. Sawicz, a medic – a small temporary hospital in a flat on the ground floor of our building, from the side of Salezego Street. (The witness proceeds to draw a site plan on which she marks the small hospital). Many insurgents also perished during these nightly raids.
On 5 or 6 August (I do not remember the exact date) our house was surrounded by an assault company that, as people said, had been brought in from Modlin. The German soldiers fired incendiary grenades into the ground-floor flats. The house started burning. The Germans also broke down the gate to our house, which opened onto Aleja 3 Maja and had been barricaded on the first day of the Uprising. At the time there was panic in thebasement, mainly amongst the women with children. They started going out into the courtyard through staircase VI, located opposite the entrance gate, and from there into the street. When the first mothers with children appeared in the street, the shooting died down. In consequence, everyone started exiting thebasements. The Germans immediately proceeded to separate the men from the women. The men were ordered to go under the viaduct, where they were arranged and had their identity documents checked, while the women were taken further away, to the shed at Wioślarska Street. The Germans allowed a few of the wounded who had been in the hospital when the civilians started to leave to be carried into the shed itself. The men standing under the viaduct also included the insurgents from our house. Nothing distinguished them from the other men; they had no armbands, for two days before the Germans occupied our house, their commander, acting on my request, ordered all the armbands to be burned. The order was obeyed. Neither did they have any weapons on them, for they had hidden them in thebasements. For this reason I may surmise that the account mentioning scarves and armbands, which I myself once heard, is incorrect.
After a few hours the Germans ordered everyone to cross the bridge to the other side of the Vistula. They stopped the women in the square at Zieleniecka Street, while the men were led down under the viaduct and into a shed that, presumably, was used for the storage of tools and other building materials. After a few more hours passed, the women were released. We were free to walk around Saska Kępa. The men were held for a few days more. Throughout this time we organized dinners for them on a daily basis. Following the intervention of Mrs. Lasocka, who held Italian citizenship and was fluent in German, the Germans would release a few of the older men every day. Younger men were taken to perform light garden work. None of them was freed throughout my period of stay in Saska Kępa.
In the first days of February 1945, after I had returned to Warsaw from deportation, I saw no traces of bullets or blood at the site where – as I heard – the insurgents had been lying on the day that the residents left our house.
In the spring of 1945 or 1946 the graves near our house were exhumed. One of these was located at Salezego Street, and another at the spiral ramp leading down to Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie Street. I was present at these exhumations. Both graves only contained the bodies of soldiers in the uniforms of Berling’s army.
I did not hear about any other mass graves in our area. However, I assume that the Polish Red Cross, which holds the protocols of these exhumations, could provide more detailed information.
At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.