On the 11th of September 1944 in the bombed church at the Łazienkowska Street 14, hundreds of insurgents and citizens of Powiśle died. Their remains might still be found under the church’s floor. Each year, at the entrance, there are memory lights.
Three years ago, Ksawery Mieczysław Szlenkier died. He was in the church’s underground during the bombing. In the interview for Oral History Archive, he said that during the uprising he was shot in his left leg and the nurse took him to the tiny hospital located in the underground side nave of the Saint Mary of Częstochowa Church. ‘The injured lied next to me, Bruno. His surname was Helwig. He took part in the Kutscher’s assassination, and he told me about the attack’ – reminded Szlenkier. Probably, he had on mind Bronisław Hellwig vel Bruno, the Home Army soldier (AK) of the Umbrella battalion.
‘More or less in the middle of the September the horrible crash and the characterized rocking rattled the church. It was like everything was made from the gum or it was built on the swamp. Then, there were nine terrible explosions. Everything went black. The dust, smoke and the odour of the trityl prevented from breathing. About the half an hour, there was total darkness, just like at night. We heard screaming and moaning of the injured because in the main underground nave there was another hospital’ – said in the interview.
Until later he found out that the churched was attacked with three Junkers Ju 87 (Stuka) and each dropped three bombs. ‘The whole church was in ruins. Almost everybody inside the middle church died. Only the side nave hospital survived’ – added.
The place, which is described by the Szlenkier, is in Powiśle. Today, there is a building complex called by the Varsovian Malbork. It is a monastery and the church. At the entrance of the church, on the left side, there is a memorial tablet devoted to the Home Army’s Soldiers and citizens, who died during the bombing on the 11th of September 1944.