HALINA GÓRECKA

5 November 1949, Warsaw. Irena Skonieczna, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland interviewed the undermentioned person who testified as follows:


Name and surname Halina Górecka
Date and place of birth 4 September 1930, Warsaw
Parents’ names Piotr and Antonina, née Jaworska
Father’s occupation Shop assistant
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Catholic
Education Two grades of secondary commercial school
Profession Typist
Place of residence Marszałkowska Street 113, flat 24 a, Warsaw
Criminal record None

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Marszałkowska Street 113. In the first days, on 3 or 4 August 1944, insurgents, accompanied by some civilians from our house, including my father, climbed a barricade at the corner of Chmielna and Marszałkowska streets. After a while, perhaps after half an hour, a German tank appeared from the side of Aleje Jerozolimskie, making the people on the barricade run to their homes at Marszałkowska Street 110, 109 and 111. Many people were killed at the time. A number of “Ukrainians”, commanded by SS men, emerged from the tank. While the SS men were standing in the gate, the “Ukrainians” stormed into the courtyard of house no.

111 and after a while we heard them banging on the small wall separating our courtyard from that of house no. 111. They didn’t get through to us because some insurgents and civilians had already returned from the barricade. My father wasn’t among those who had returned. I learned from one of the nurses that the bodies of the people murdered by the “Ukrainians” lay in the courtyard of house no. 111. I went there through a shelter and, as the Germans were still standing in the gate, hid behind the trash can. Near the gate I saw the bodies of the murdered people lying by the wall, stacked one on the other. There were both men and women, about 37 or 40 in number, including the sister of my friend, a baby in her arms (I can’t remember her name). But I found that out after a few days, when the surviving residents of Marszałkowska Street 111 were burying the bodies of the victims of the execution. From this group, I can point out Stanisław Grzywacz as a witness. A janitor of house no. 111, he is also the owner of a fruit shop at Puławska Street near Belgijska Street.

Until 2 October 1944 we stayed at Marszałkowska Street 113. That day I and my parents, along with a great number of other people from other houses in the Śródmieście (City Center) district, went to the Western Railway Station, from where we were transported to Pruszków.

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