Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Excerpts from: German Crimes in Poland. Howard Fertig, New York, 1982.
III. Crimes at Other Wola District Hospitals
Record No. 80
In the summer of 1944, I was sent as a patient to Wola Hospital, where I was
still, suffering from sudative pleurisy, when the Rising began. The Germans
came to the Hospital on August 3 at 1 p.m. I was in the cellar with many
other sick and wounded. On entering the cellar, the Germans fired a round
from a machine-gun and several wounded men who were standing near the entrance
fell dead. A few minutes later the order was given to leave the hospital.
All the wounded and sick who were able to walk went with the hospital staff,
while the more severely wounded were carried on stretchers. Our march was
a nightmare. I felt very weak, still having drainage tubes in one side. We
were driven to a shed a few metres behind a tunnel in Gorczewska Street.
Many people were already there. After examining our documents, they divided
us into groups, and then began to drive us out. Soon the group to which I
belonged was taken out for execution. We were led towards a large house (already
on fire) near the tunnel: were ordered to form rows of twelve people, and
were then driven into the yard of this house. At the entrance Ukrainians*
(six in number) shot from close range at every person who entered, and thus
the dead fell into the flames of the burning house. I saw clearly, when waiting
my turn in the first group of twelve people, doctors, assistants in white
aprons and also (if I am not mistaken) some priests being shot. Among the
doctors was Prof. Grzybowski; then the wounded and sick in the other rows
were driven to death, and when the turn of those on stretchers came, they
were shot first and the stretcher-bearers after them. It was only by a miracle
that I escaped death. When I was driven to the entrance in a group of twelve,
I turned to one of the officers and told him, falsely, that I myself and
my two companions were Volksdeutsche (I speak German well). So the German
ordered us to fall back and follow him; he led us to a German first-aid station,
situated in the neighbourhood. About 500 persons were shot in m y presence,
among them many from the Wola Hospital; others also, driven here from other
streets in the Wola suburb, were with us. The volleys lasted till late into
the night. At nightfall hand-grenades were thrown on the heaps of corpses
and in the morning a tank arrived, and demolished the burnt house, thus covering
the corpses of the murdered (already partly burnt) as well as the place of
execution.
The frightful smell of burning corpses was unbearable. I saw it all quite well, as I stayed in the German first-aid station (situated quite near), till the following morning.
Record No. 94
On August 5, 1944, at 2 p.m., the Germans broke into Wola Hospital in Plocka
Street. Robbing began; the staff and the wounded were searched, and their
money, watches and valuables were taken from them. At about 3 p.m. the Germans
broke into the Hospital Director’s office and shots were heard from
there. They shot the Director, Dr. Marian Piasecki, Prof. Zeyland and the
Rev. Father Kazimierz Ciecierski, Chaplain of the Hospital (who had been
specially summoned to the office). Then the order was given for the Hospital
to be evacuated. The staff and all the patients who could walk were ordered
to leave the premises. The procession was dreadful: the doctors leading,
then the assistants, then the patients, staggering along, supported by those
whom were stronger. Some had their arms in splints, others were on crutches;
all in their underlinen, often incomplete, moving on with almost super-human
effort. We were driven behind the railway subway to a shed or rather a factory
hall, called Moczydlo, whe re were already several hundred people; and there
with shouts and threats they divided us into groups. After some time four
people were called out, then twenty-five. At the entrance, they were ordered
to give up their watches. After a moment we heard shots. As there was no
fighting near by we knew that an execution was taking place near us; the
well-known sound of machine-gun fire was heard, and later single shots. There
was no doubt that those who had been led out had been shot. Being a priest,
I told those present the fate that probably awaited us and gave them absolution.
After a moment the Germans called out 50 men. The atmosphere of death had
already spread in the hall; the men went reluctantly.
Then 70 men were called out and again shots were heard; then the last group; among them the doctors, assistants and male nursing staff. To this group we also belonged, that is to say myself and another priest, Antoni Branszweig (alumn). I succeeded at the last moment in slipping away from the group which was coming out and hid among some nuns. The party of doctors were led out to death before my eyes. I did not see the execution itself, I only heard the volleys. I was told afterwards that the executions took place inside and in the courtyards of burning houses, at several places in Gorczewska Street. In the last group I saw Prof. Grzybowski, Dr. Drozdowski, Dr. Sokolowski, and Dr. Lempicki led out for execution.
Next day, disguised as a nun, I was taken with the remainder of the women in the direction of the Wola fortifications. During that march I escaped.
More than 200 people from Wola Hospital were then shot.
The criminals belonged to SS and Ukrainian detachments.
Record No. 189
St. Lazarus‘ Hospital. On Aug. 6, 1944, the stronger patients and the
staff (200 persons altogether) were driven out of the hospital. All were shot:
among them 28 from the chief staff. Mrs. Dr. Barcz was shot together with her
husband (also a doctor). She was only wounded, and fell to the ground, where
she was found next day, together with some male nurses, and brought to St.
Stanislaus’ Hospital. Dr. Barcz was never found: probably he died. One
of the nurses who was saved, Mrs. Maciejewska, states that the severely wounded
and the old men were taken under her supervision to the shelter, but were murdered
there with hand-grenades when the hospital was captured. Not one of them was
saved.
Record No. 215
On the night of August 5/6, 1944, the St. Lazarus Hospital was taken. Owing
to very intense artillery fire and air raids, the staff and the wounded retired
to the shelter. The Germans threw grenades and mines and poured petrol into
it and set it on fire. About 600 people were burnt. The whole hospital building
was also burnt down after they had first removed all the Germans, who had
been given the same care by the Poles as the Polish insurgents themselves.
When one of the nuns tried to intervene on behalf of the wounded, a German threw a hand-grenade at her.