FRANCISZKA GOSZCZYŃSKA

Warsaw, 8 July 1948. 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 Wacława Goszczyńska (religious name Franciszka)
Names of parents Jan and Marianna née Pinkawa
Date of birth 18 March 1897, Grodzisk
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education high school
Place of residence Skrzeszewy, Convent of the Sisters of the Family of Mary
State and national affiliation Polish
Occupation tailor

The outbreak of the uprising caught me in the Convent of the Sisters of the Family of Mary at Chełmska Street 19 in Warsaw. There was an orphanage and a vocational school in the convent. At the beginning of August, I don’t remember the exact date, the evacuated hospitals came to us: Ujazdowski and Holy Spirit. The wounded took up 40 rooms, I cannot give their number. The hospitals put out a big flag of the Red Cross in a visible place on the tower of the building.

On 30 August 1944, the German planes bombed [us]. It was said then that around 300 wounded from the Home Army and a large number of civilians had died. After the bombing, the sisters led the children out to Czerniaków-Sadyba, and later to Wilanów. On 10 September, three insurgents came to us and shot at the German positions from the tower. They left at night. On 11 September, around 7.00 a.m., the Germans started shooting at our house from their position in Czerniaków-Sadyba, from Puławska Street, and from Iwicka Street. The area had been constantly shot at before, but his time the shooting was clearly directed at our building, so as a result, the hall in which the wounded were lying, collapsed. Around 100 wounded and almost 2,000 civilians, including five sisters, died then. Two rooms on the ground floor remained, in which a few sisters stayed. Two of them were buried the next day. I left the hospital on 11 September at night, walking to Dolna Street, where I remained until the capitulation of Mokotów. I heard later that the hospital had been bombed on 13, 14, 15 September. As far as I know, none of the wounded survived. Only the wounded from the Ujazdowski Hospital died, the few from Holy Spirit Hospital had been moved to [Sko]limów before the first bombing.

At this report was concluded and read out.