MARIA IWANICKA

Warsaw, 18 December 1945. Examining Judge Alicja Germasz interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:


Name and surname Maria Iwanicka
Date of birth 27 January 1913
Parents’ names Piotr and Helena
Place of residence Warsaw, Szustra Street 18, flat 1
Occupation reporter with the Polish Red Cross
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

On 27 – 29 November 1945 I was present as a reporter with the Polish Red Cross at the exhumation carried out by the Municipal Undertaker’s Office on aleja Piłsudskiego. There were four graves there, but after they had been dug up it turned out that they were one joint grave. A total of 27 human bodies were recovered, some preserved completely, while others only partially, although their clothing was intact. Some carried traces of burning – charred bones and burnt clothes, while some were stuck to asphalt slabs and had been buried in such state. These were mainly male corpses.

Chance onlookers present at the exhumation said that in the first days of August 1944, the Germans had abducted people from houses in the vicinity of Zbawiciela Square and led them to the Gestapo, from where some were taken to S. Anc’s Pharmacy at Marszałkowska Street 21, where they were shot and, in some instances, incinerated. The bodies of these people were moved to the graves on aleja Piłsudskiego in March 1945 by the Municipal Department of Sanitation. I obtained the latter information from an official of the Municipal Department of Sanitation whom I met completely by chance; I do not know his surname, but he also said that a detailed list of people transferred from S. Anc’s Pharmacy and buried in the grave at aleja Piłsudskiego is in the possession of the head of the Sanitary Department of the Municipal Board, Dr Majkowski.

Amongst those present during the exhumation was Ms Prawdzic-Leymon (I don’t know her name, but she works at the Wawelberg School on Rakowiecka Street), who recognized her father and husband amongst the bodies. She had been taken in the first days of August 1944 together with her family from their flat at Mokotowska Street 6 to the Gestapo building in aleja Szucha, from where she and her mother were freed, while her father, husband and son were detained.

I would like to add that around eight people were identified in the course of the exhumation. The exhumation report is in the possession of the Polish Red Cross. Hospital attendant J. Wyszyński, an employee of the Municipal Undertaker’s Office, was present during the exhumation in the capacity of physician.

The report was read out.