KAZIMIERA CHODYCZKO

Warsaw, 29 July 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Kazimiera Chodyczko
Date and place of birth 25 December 1905, Wohyń, Radzyń Podlaski county
Parents’ names Józef and Maria, née Słobodzińska
Father’s occupation farmer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation nun
Place of residence Warsaw, Racławicka Street 14
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I and some other sisters (between 30 and 40 in total) were in our nunnery of the Franciscan Sisters at Racławicka Street 14. Towards the end of August or in the beginning of September 1944, following the bombing of the Hospital of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth at Goszczyńskiego Street, the wounded from that hospital – I didn’t know their number – moved to our facility together with the personnel, thus leading to the establishment of a makeshift hospital located in the basements and corridors, with some 70 wounded. Apart from these, our nunnery also housed escapees, the latter comprising a group of approximately 30 children (including infants) up to 11–12 years of age, and a small number of elderly people and mothers with children. The remaining escapees, who had been here previously, left our nunnery following the arrival of the wounded. In the last week before the capitulation, the Germans started shelling our nunnery (I don’t know what weapons they used); the shelling lasted without pause through the entire week and resulted in five large breaches in the walls from the side of Okęcie.

On the day of the capitulation of Mokotów, German soldiers entered our nunnery and immediately started asking how many deaths had been caused there by the shelling. They were surprised when we informed them that the only deaths that we had noted were those of the wounded who had died in the hospital from their injuries. The Germans ordered us to leave the nunnery straightaway and carry the wounded out onto the racetrack.

I think that these soldiers were from the Wehrmacht, while the Gestapo and “Ukrainians” appeared on Michaelmas, that is, on 29 September.

Since we could not carry the wounded out on our own, while at the same time we did not want to leave them, we did not evacuate the nunnery, especially as the Polish Red Cross promised us that it would intervene on behalf of the wounded. And indeed, on 29 September 1944 carts were sent in from around Warsaw. We placed the wounded on these and the carts left for the racetrack. Some of the sisters accompanied them, while I and the others left later, taking the children with us. Proceeding in accordance with the instructions given by German guard posts, we reached the racetrack. On the same day at night we, that is the sisters with children, the elderly and mothers, were taken to Pruszków, and from there to Wolbrom.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.