Warsaw, 20 December 1945. Judge Halina Wereńko delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes interviewed the person specified below as a witness.
Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Article 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Anna Hołdakowa |
| Date of birth | 25 July 1890 |
| Occupation | Gardener |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Górczewska street 90 |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
During the Warsaw Uprising I lived in Warsaw, at Górczewska Street 90, where I had a gardening facility. On 8 August 1944 a group of German soldiers burst into our house, ordering everyone to get out (raus). I went out with my mother Katarzyna Boczkowska (81) and with two daughters, Romana Henryka and Anna Cecylia, and I joined the group of residents onto Wolska Street.
A section of the houses on Górczewska Street were on fire, some had already been burnt down. There were a lot of German soldiers and “Ukrainians” strolling around.
Our group was walking along Elekcyjna Street, and then Wolska Street to Bema Street in the direction of the West Railway Station [Dworzec Zachodni]. In front of the gate of the house at Bema Street 54, I noticed a flag of the Red Cross; a German soldier stood there, who saw us and ordered my eighty-one-year-old mother and my younger 13-year- old daughter to go to the Red Cross. I was to remain in the transport. My daughter burst into tears and, holding tightly to me, said that she was not going anywhere. Finally the soldier gave up, he only took my mother, whom he led into the house. I was nervous, I didn’t notice whether they were detaining anyone else. I didn’t see how many people were in the yard. I was forced to leave with the group of civilians towards the West Railway Station.
I was transported to the transit camp in Pruszków, from where I managed to break free.
From the moment my mother had been taken to the “Red Cross”, there was no news of her, despite [my] unrelenting search.
After I returned to Warsaw in April 1945, I learned from the residents of the houses neighbouring the house at Bema Street 54 that for a couple of days, around 8 August 1944, the German soldiers had been gathering elderly, crippled and disabled persons in that building, taking them away, as they took my mother, from the transports of civilians shepherded to the West Railway Station, and then they had burnt the house down together with the group of people inside.
In the ruins of that house I saw a human skull, a shinbone and a forearm bone, as well as small charred bones mixed with ashes.
At that the report was concluded and read out.