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WITNESSES |
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Collection of eyewitness accounts of events taking place during the Warsaw Uprising. It includes formal testimonies given to the commission investigating German/Nazi war crimes as well as personal memoirs and accounts of insurgents, civilians, and war correspondents. |
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Atrocities
The Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland was established in 1945 to collect evidence of German/Nazi war crimes committed in occupied Poland during 1939-1945. The following selection of testimonies relates to the atrocities committed against civilians during the Warsaw Uprising. It has been estimated that 50,000 civilians were executed during the first two weeks of August of 1944.
See [ photos  ] |
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bill c. biega Excerpts from the WWII Home Army solider of the 'Kilinski' battalion, wounded during the Warsaw Uprising; married Alicja, a hospital nurse, on August 13, 1944.
[ read more ]
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Sylwester Braun 'Kris' Famous for being the most prolific photographer of the Warsaw Uprising. In additional to recording memorable images of the Uprising, he wrote short stories describing the events he photographed.
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German Accounts Over 50,000 German and their allied troops were fighting the Warsaw Uprising. However, only a few of their accounts were ever published.
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Zdzislaw Jarkiewicz 'longin' A soldier of the 'Gustaw-Harnas' battalion was injured in City Centre by much feared explosive and incendiary missiles 'Nebelwerfer' nicknamed by the Poles 'Krowy' (cows).
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Barbara Kaczynska-Januszkiewicz A diary of a 13 year old girl who, at the time of the Warsaw Uprising, lived with her parents in Warsaw's Mokotow district.
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Witold Kiezun 'wypad' 2nd
Lt. in the 'Gustaw-Harnas' battalion
fought in a defense of Wola, successful attacks on the Main
Post building, the police station, and the Holy Cross Church.
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Julian Eugeniusz Kulski 'Goliat' Excerpts from the chronicle of a 14-year old partisan and member of the Home Army's 'Zywiciel' company fighting in the Zoliborz district. The complete chronicle covers 1939-1945 including 1939 siege of Warsaw, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, and his POW camp imprisonment.
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Stanislaw Likiernik As a member of 'Kedyw', a sabotage and diversionary section of the Home Army, between 1942–1944 he participated in armed actions against Germans in occupied Warsaw. During the Warsaw Uprising his unit was involved in combat in Wola, Old Town, Czerniakow and City Centre districts. The following stories are the fragments of his World War II memoirs.
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Lucyna A
story of a woman whose fiancée, before going to the battle,
had promised her to come back. She has been waiting for him
ever since.
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Jan & Jadwiga Nowak Fragments of memoirs by Home Army emissary who undertook several hazardous journeys between German-occupied Poland and England. Involved in a successful diversionary propaganda ('Action N') against Nazis. During the Warsaw Uprising operated partisan radio station 'Lighting' ('Blyskawica'). [ rADIO  ] His wife, Jadwiga 'Greta', was a courier for High Command of the Home Army.
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Recollections A set of memoirs and diary entries by the Warsaw Uprising participants collected and translated by the Polish Academic Information Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
All texts are reprinted with permission from [ info poland ].
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Sewers From early weeks of August, insurgents of the separated districts kept the line of communications through city sewers system. First used by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising insurgents, sewers served as the crucial supply and evacuation routes until the end of September.
The following testimonies were collected and transcribed by Andrzej M. Kobos and published in Zeszyty Historyczne in 1994.
Read [ Sewers ] , see
[ photos ] |
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Zygmunt Skarbek-Kruszynski Fragments of the WWII memoirs [ read all ]
by a civilian who witnessed first two weeks of the Warsaw Uprising from the city suburbs close to the combat zone in the Mokotow district.
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ZDISŁAW SZELISKI Soldier of the battalion 'Gustaw', company 'Anna', fought in Wola, Old Town and City Centre. Wounded on Aug. 13 during explosion of a German SdKfz. 301 Borgward B IV armored demolition vehicle which took the lives of 300+ insurgents and civilians.
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Andrzej Rafal Ulankiewicz 'warski II' Solider of an elite battalion 'Parasol' (Umbrella) fought in Ochota, City Centre, and Cherniakow districts. His unit, as first during the Warsaw Uprising, evacuated through the sewers. Captured at the end of the September, had a rare opportunity to witness the fate of the city after the fall of the Uprising.
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John Ward A RAF airman, an ex-POW, and a member of the Home Army between 1941-1945, he dispatched 64 reports giving an eyewitness account of the fighting to Allied governments. At one point he became a war correspondent for London's The Times. He also made English-language broadcasts from the clandestine insurgent radio station 'Lighting' ('Blyskawica').
Read [ documents ] , [ article ] |
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Warsaw airlift The stories of the allied airmen flying the supplying missions for the fighting Warsaw insurgents.
Read [ airlift ]
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Charles Kazimierz Wojcik 'Krzysztof' A Home Army soldier of the 'Golski' battalion defended the Warsaw Polytechnic in the City Centre south. His father, Jan Wojcik, a soldier of the 'Gozdawa' battalion fought in the Old Town quarter. After the surrender, both were imprisoned in the POW camps until their liberation in 1945.
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Roman Wyrzykowski 'Krasicki' A corporal in the 'Kilinski' battalion, wounded during the Uprising's first day. Immobilized by his leg wound, he spent the following weeks at the mercy of his care-takers, both Polish and German. Barbara Wyrzykowska (maiden name Sienoradzka), his future wife, was a courier, delivering messages and materials through the sewers, and above the ground trails.
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Waclaw Zagorski 'Lech' A captain of the Home Army's 'Chrobry II' battalion defended City Centre's Grzybowska Street.
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