HELENA PRZYBYLSKA

On 17 October 1945 in Poznań, prosecutor W. Janik heard as a witness the person specified below; the witness did not swear an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Helena Przybylska
Age 70 years old
Parents’ names Marian, Domicela
Place of residence Poznań, Poznańska Street 57, flat 13
Occupation clerk
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties wife

On 7 January 1945, when the Russian troops were standing on the banks of the Vistula River, my husband and five other inhabitants of Brudzeń Mały, a village in the Płock district, were taken as hostages in consequence of the fact that unknown people had murdered, probably for personal reasons, a commander of the local German Gendarmerie. The commissar of the region, Hugo Reich, who had been also attacked but who recovered, pointed to my husband as the leader of the Poles.

On the following day at 7.00 a.m., after interrogation at the local gendarmerie station, my husband was led by the Gestapo to the nearby forest, from where sounds of explosions and shooting could be distinctly heard. Along with the other local people, I suspected that the hostages had been executed in the forest. No search, however, was conducted either before or after the entry of the Soviet army.

Only at the end of February this year, the citizens’ militia came across the grave of six executed hostages during a manhunt in the local woods. It was a cave in the side of a gorge in the forest, which could hold about 40 people. The entrance to the cave was camouflaged so well with earth and greenery that it could be discovered only by chance.

The crime scene investigation and an autopsy carried out by a physician revealed that the victims were driven into the cave and murdered with hand grenades. The victims had arms and legs broken several times to ensure that they were dead.

I suppose that the crime scene investigation report and the autopsy report are filed in the municipal court in Płock.

The report was read out; I have testified so.