Warsaw, 25 November 1947. The member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Zofia Wincentyna Korszyńska née Gajewska |
Names of parents | Ignacy and Helena née Gajewska |
Date of birth | 20 January 1851 |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Place of residence | Warsaw, Wawelska Street 30 |
State and national affiliation | Polish |
Education | seven years of secondary school |
Occupation | with husband, eng. architect |
The outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising caught me together with my husband in our own house at Wawelska Street 30 in Warsaw. The other half of the semi-detached house, belonging to the Bursch family, was occupied by Freimark with his son and Bursch’s cousin (I don’t remember the surname).
On 7 August, at 9.00 or 11.00 in the morning, “Ukrainians” came and fired on our house, breaking the windows. Next, they stormed into my flat and scattered things, looking for valuables. After a moment, another group of “Ukrainians” burst in, and seeing their friends in ours, went to the other half of the house inhabited by the Freimarks. After some time, I heard sounds similar to breaking furniture. The “Ukrainians” left the house.
I realized they were “Ukrainians” because in conversation they used the Russian language. Around 4.00 p.m., I saw through the window that German soldiers had dug a pit in the garden of Bursch’s house, and next dragged some heavy objects from Freimark’s flat to that pit.
After the liberation in 1945, I pointed out the place of that pit, and after the exhumation it was stated that the corpses of three people were there, which the family recognized as the bodies of the Freimarks and of Bursch’s cousin.
At this the report was concluded and read out.