FELIKSA MAJEWSKA

Warsaw, 15 March 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Feliksa Majewska, "Teresa"
Parents’ names Władysław and Bronisława, née Budzyńska
Date of birth 2 November 1910, Obory, district of Rypin
Education vocational school and Economic School
Place of residence Warsaw, Kozia Street 40
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Profession worker at the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs

On 3 August 1944 I reported as a volunteer to the command headquarters of the Home Army in the Old Town, at Rynek Street 23 (the "U Fukiera" restaurant). I was posted as a nurse to the line at Rybaki Street ("Peking"), where I fell ill with typhus. Towards the end of August I was transferred to the insurrectionary hospital at Freta Street 10. I was located in a cellar on the side of Freta Street, in a building marked with the number 6 on the plan shown to me (the witness was presented with a drawing made by witness Marcinkiewicz). A few days before the hospital was captured by the Germans, I felt quite well and was taking care of the wounded as a nurse in the corridor marked with the number 3 on the drawing.

German units occupied our hospital on 2 September in the morning. In the evening of the previous day I had gone to the cellars under the building marked with the number 6. I saw that the less severely wounded had left the cellar. A few of the more seriously wounded remained, while two seriously wounded men were lying on the ground floor near the stairs: Latoszek, wounded during an execution at Senatorska Street, and another whose surname I don’t know. They were so severely wounded that they could not be taken down to the cellar. The following were in the cellar: sister "Helena" and sister "Barbara" (I don’t know their surnames), and a hairdresser (I don’t know his surname) with his seriously wounded wife and son, who then proceeded to the corridor.

On 2 September at around 06:00 a German patrol entered the corridor in which I was tending to the wounded. The doctors were not present. Only the female nurses, Father Kulesza, and all of the wounded remained – some 150 people in total. The patrol left, and a detachment of "Ukrainians" appeared. In the afternoon the "Ukrainians" threw grenades into the cellar where the wounded were lying (under building number 6) through the small window near the stairs leading to the square. The hairdresser witnessed this.

Towards the end of January 1945 I went to the premises at Freta Street 10 and saw that the cellar under the building marked on the drawing [with the number] 6 had been gutted by fire, while near the stairs I saw the blackened bodies of Latoszek and the second wounded man. I did not go deeper into the cellar, so I could not see whether there were any bodies there.

On 2 September 1944, in the afternoon, St. Jacek’s Church started to burn (I did not see whether it had been set on fire) and the flames moved to the building in which I was tending the wounded (in the corridor). At the time, the wounded were lying in the corridor only. After St. Jacek’s Church was bombed, we transferred the wounded from the chapter house to the corridor. Together with the other nurses, Father Kulesza, and the hairdresser, I carried the wounded out into Stara Street, placing them on the roadway. However, the fire had spread to such an extent that we were unable to move four or five of the severely wounded women who were lying at the far end of the corridor, nearer to the church, and they were therefore burned alive.

During this night the "Ukrainians" attacked the female nurses. While carrying out the wounded, I stepped on a nail. I had a wound in my leg and hid near the wounded. I do not remember the surnames of the female nurses, I only heard that sister Wanda and sister [To] la were raped, while another woman – trying to escape – jumped from the first floor into Mostowa Street. The next night in Stara Street the "Ukrainians" shot a female patient who had undergone trepanning and was screaming and groaning. They ordered the hairdresser to take her aside and then shot her seven times.

In order to avoid the advances of the "Ukrainians", we nurses hid, and during the day the patients were taken care of by two elderly female volunteers. There were no drugs or dressings – the "Ukrainians" had robbed us of everything.

On 4 September, I don’t remember the exact date apart from it being a Sunday, Barbara and Helena (the sisters from the cellar under the building marked with the number 6) and – separately – sister Tola left in the direction of Żoliborz with some of the less severely wounded.

On 2 September Father Kulesza and a veterinary doctor (currently residing in Ursus) went to the German command headquarters to obtain a permit for the transferral of the wounded. Neither of them returned to us. I cannot specify the number of wounded whom we carried out.

On 8 September a Red Cross team arrived from the seminary at the Carmelite church (Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 66) and took some of the wounded on stretchers. On the next day they took another group of wounded, and I left together with them.

I cannot specify the number of wounded who were taken from Stara Street. A few severely wounded men were left behind, as well as a slightly larger group of elderly women. The Red Cross team from the seminary was not allowed to make any more runs to Stara Street. German soldiers fetched a few elderly women by car, and these said that the few severely wounded men had been shot dead by the Germans. I don’t know the details.

I remained at the seminary until 23 September, working as a nurse in the ad hoc hospital that had been set up there. On 23 September the wounded were transported in groups to the Wolski Hospital; I was also taken there.

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