BRONISŁAWA ZIELIŃSKA

Warsaw, 6 June 1946. Deputy Prosecutor Zofia Rudziewicz interviewed the person specified below as a witness, without swearing her in. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Forename and surname Bronisława Zielińska, née Miszczak
Date of birth 13 December 1905
Names of parents Jan and Katarzyna
Place of residence Warsaw, Koszykowa Street 79
Occupation employee of the Warsaw University of Technology
Religious affiliation Roman-Catholic
Criminal record none
Education elementary school

My husband, Stanisław Zieliński, was a mechanic in the Institute of Aerodynamics of the Warsaw University of Technology. We lived within the precincts of the Warsaw University of Technology. During the Uprising, my sister, Janina Woźniakowa, took refuge at my place, together with her husband, Stanisław Woźniak, and her son, Janusz.

On 19 August 1944 a group of SS-men stormed into the building where we lived; we were in a shelter into which the SS-men threw grenades, wounding a few people. The Germans ordered everybody to come out and they separated the men from the women. They escorted all of us to aleja Niepodległości, where the Ministry of National Defence is located now. The women were separated; we were kept for two days without food, and then transported away to [Kraus?], where we were set free. The men were taken into the square in front of what is now the building of the ministry; they were ordered to dig pits, after which the SS-men shot and buried them. I did not witness that; the details of the execution were given to me by an acquaintance of mine, Wójcikówna, who lived nearby and had seen everything through the windows of her flat. This was how eight men died. In addition to my husband, the following men were killed: Adam Boguszewski, Konstanty Grzelak – a caretaker in the Institute of Aerodynamics, Wiktor Zieliński – a laboratory technician, his son Zbigniew (16 years old), one person whose name I do not know, Woźniak and his son Janusz (15 years old). On 11 April 1945 the Polish authorities conducted an exhumation of the bodies; I was present and I saw the corpses of the murdered men. The doctors found that they had been buried alive and that my husband had a bulging throat and his legs were tangled due to the fact that he had suffocated in the grave; the boys’ eyes were open and their mouths and hands were full of earth.

I think that it was Fischer who was responsible for this crime, as he was in charge of Warsaw then.

I do not know where Wójcikówna lives now.