Warsaw, 1 April 1946. Investigating Judge Alicja Germasz, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named 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 her in, following which the witness testified as follows:
| Forename and surname | Stanisława Mączka |
| Names of parents | Maria and Piotr |
| Date of birth | 29 May 1917 |
| Education | three grades at trade school |
| Place of residence | Żerańska Street 6 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
On 1 August 1944 at around 5.00 p.m. I was returning with my husband, Stanisław, and four year old child from my husband’s mother, who was a resident at Szeroka Street (where my husband had gone for dinner after work at the locksmith and turner’s shop at Szeroka Street 4), to our house at Żerańska Street. We were passing by the Orthodox church at Targowa Street when we heard an air-raid warning. We then hid in a shelter in the Orthodox church. There were already some one hundred people there (men and women). We heard the sound of fighting, and bullets were falling on the church premises. Around 6.00 p.m., two Ukrainians and one German (in SS uniform, if I remember correctly) burst into the shelter. They were armed with automatic pistols, revolvers and grenades, and ordered everyone to come out. When we were on the stairs, they ordered the men to stand separately from the women. My husband, carrying our child on his arm, went over to the group of men. They were led into the courtyard of the Orthodox church (there was one Orthodox priest among them), while we – the women – followed them. In the courtyard the men’s identity papers were checked, and those who had the German ones were escorted back to the shelter. Those remaining, 17 in all (Poles and Russians), were taken to Cyryla i Metodego Street. There they were arranged in single file in the middle of the roadway, facing the Orthodox church. A tank was placed in front of them. We, the women, were ordered to stand on the pavement. A German soldier – the one who had led us out of the shelter – then said in German (this I understood), “Stand there, you Polish swine, and watch yours and the Russian swine die.” I then threw myself upon my husband so as to take our child. The same soldier then struck me viciously on the face and, pointing his rifle at us, ordered me and my child, and also two other women, to go to the first floor of the Orthodox church, where he locked us up the toilet Next, he went downstairs, stood in the courtyard and, aiming his rifle at the window of the room, fired. The bullets entered the room, but no one was hurt. I then heard his voice, “The Polish swine are dead, let us take care of those.” I managed to escape from the toilet and, with my child on my arm, I ran downstairs and mingled with the crowd of women who were still standing in front of the Orthodox church. At this moment the tank fired one salvo, and then another. The men fell to the ground, and then the Germans threw grenades at them. I saw how my husband, who was fifth in the file, toppled over dead. Once the execution was over, the Germans departed, however leaving a sentry with a rifle, who did not allow anyone near the bodies. At that point we, the women, returned to the shelter.
Two days later I managed to get through to Wileńska Street 2 to a friend of mine, and from there I saw that even then no one was allowed to go near the site where the bodies of the dead men lay. I then went to my mother-in-law at Stalowa Street.
Two weeks later I was informed by a friend of my husband’s (I do not know his surname), who on 5 August had been taken by the Germans from the street to bury the bodies of those killed in Cyryla i Metodego Street, that my husband had been buried together with the other 16 victims of the execution in a common grave on the premises of the Orthodox church. This friend recognized my husband’s body and took his identity papers and keys, which were subsequently handed over to me by the Orthodox priest at the church, where they had been deposited.
In April 1945 an exhumation was performed with the participation of the Polish Red Cross, during which I recognized my husband’s body. I then buried my husband at the cemetery in Bródno.
I would like to add that just before the execution was carried out, two men managed to escape from the file. I do not know their surnames or addresses, but I will try to determine them and notify the commission.
The report was read out.