Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw
Otwocka Street 3, room 8
Testifying is Franciszek Skibniewski, domiciled in Praga at Targowa Street 64, flat no. 8, concerning the arrest of his son and daughter and others.
On 15 December 1942, at 7 p.m., three people wearing civilian clothes came to my place; after a thorough search, they took away my son, Kazimierz Wiktor Skibniewski, PhD (born 6 August 1910), and my daughter, Barbara Skibniewska, MA (born 1 March 1913), as well as Professor Bąbała, editor Czarnecki, and student Zbigniew Kuczkowski.
Kazimierz Skibniewski was executed in the Osuchowski woods together with 69 other prisoners from Pawiak prison on 12 February 1943 at 4 a.m..
I was told that it had been seen by a ranger (whose name I do not know), sitting on a tree branch in the woods.
Barbara Skibniewska was beaten up horribly during an interrogation, as a result of which she died on 12 March 1943. I received her corpse from the Institute of Forensic Medicine on Oczki Street. Thanks to the efforts of my daughter’s friends, during the transport of a large number of corpses, the corpse of my daughter was not thrown into a grave but sent to Oczki Street. Her body was bruised all over, there was a rope entwined in her hair, which had been used to hang her; her feet had been burnt with electricity, and there were splinters of wood stuck under her fingernails. The body was beaten from head to toe and was a horrible sight.
Through Helena Kozłowska, the owner of a shop selling toys and accessories at Śniadeckich Street 3 and the intermediary Goździowska, the owner of a house in Warsaw (residing at Kredytowa Street 16), I had made efforts to have my children released from prison. When I learnt about my daughter’s death, I visited Goździowska, who furiously replied that the monkey (i.e. my daughter in the words of Goździowska) would not listen to the volksdeutsch who interrogated her, would not sign what he gave her; instead, she wanted to be a great patriot, she confessed in her own way and she would not betray anybody.
I was told by Domańska, an old woman who was with my daughter in Pawiak prison, that when my daughter returned from an interrogation in the Gestapo office in aleja Szucha, she was very tired; she knelt down in the cell, wept copiously, started to pray, and after a moment fainted. After some time, she came to herself, prayed, and kept saying that we would all be wiped out. She was horribly beaten up; she was taken to the infirmary, where she died on 12 February 1943, at 3 p.m..
Professor Bębała was killed in the Majdanek extermination camp, the editor Czarnecki and student Kuczkowski died in a concentration camp in Germany.
On 28 December 1942, Bolesław Burski (36 years old) was arrested, also from my flat. He was in Pawiak prison; he was then transported to the Majdanek extermination camp; from there, before the liquidation of the camp, he was transported to Auschwitz.
His later fate is unknown to me.
On 17 December 1943, at 6 p.m., Witold Mieczkowski, a Doctor of Medicine, was arrested from my flat and sent to Pawiak prison. He was transported from the prison in an unknown direction. I do not know if he is still alive.
I testified truthfully. Before signing my name, I have read the witness interview report.