Warsaw, 9 May 1948. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Wacław Murawski |
| Date of birth | 11 November 1889 in Warsaw |
| Names of parents | Jan and Paulina née Laskowska |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Education | gymnasium, seminary, Faculty of Theology of the University |
of Warsaw
Occupation parson of Saint Adalbert Parish (Wolska Street 76), Dean of Warsaw
Place of residence Nowogrodzka Street 49, flat 25
I was in the vicarage in Sokołowska Street 4 when the Warsaw Uprising broke out. I was at that time, and I still am, the parson of Saint Adalbert Parish in Wola.
For four years before the uprising, three-fourths of the vicarage had been occupied by a troop of German sappers, most of whom left before 1 August 1944. Car workshops remained.
On 1 August 1944 at 5 p.m., after the first shots in the vicinity of the church, the entire yard began to swarm with armed German sappers. From that time I was not able to move around freely; up to 4 August 1944 I was still allowed to move between the vicarage and the church. From that date on, I could only move around under guard. I remained in Warsaw until 10 August 1944. On that day in the evening, a gendarmerie troop arrived at the vicarage. I did not recognize their uniforms, the soldiers themselves said that this was a troop of field gendarmerie (Feldgendarmerie). I noticed that on their uniforms, at the level of the pocket, they had a marking with a black background and the name Posen (in Latin letters).
The troop was commanded by a second-lieutenant, whose name I don’t know.
The newly arrived men searched the vicarage several times, taking away any valuable items, and even the linen. They settled in the vicarage and from there were sent on missions. The fact that struck me was that they did not seem tired upon arrival.
On 2 August 1944 before noon, another gendarmerie troop brought a bunch of civilians from the nearest vicinity of Wolska Street, from the stretch between Płocka Street and Bema Street, to the church. These people told me that the gendarmes had burst into their homes, had thrown grenades into the basements and were throwing civilians out. These houses were not located on the front line.
As early as from 3 August 1944, groups of civilians began to be sent to transit camps in Ursus and then in Pruszków. Groups which arrived on 3 and 4 August 1944 consisted mostly of women and children from Wolska Street and from the cross streets, from the stretch from Młynarska Street up to Bema Street.
I heard from many women that during those days and in that area, Germans from the gendarmerie formations and the “Ukrainians” seized the houses one by one, they murdered most of the men and sent the women to the church.
Maria Gąsecka, a resident at Wolska Street 66, flat 2, told me that she saw with her own eyes her son and husband being murdered on 4 August 1944.
During these days, in the healthcare facility in Wolska Street 62, the Germans (I am unable to name the division) murdered a doctor and the sanitary personnel.
I don’t remember the names of the murdered or of the persons who told me about this.
I heard that the command of the Home Army had stayed in that facility for some time.
On 5 August 1944, the Gestapo came to the vicarage. It was a large troop.
I don’t know where they had come from. I didn’t distinguish the divisions, but one of the officers that arrived told me that the Gestapo had arrived.
All of them wore uniforms, I noticed that they had little skulls on their hats and uniform lapels. I didn’t notice any other details of their uniforms.
The Gestapo troop established itself in the vicarage. On 5 August, after the Gestapo had arrived, I was prohibited to go to the church, and so I was no longer able to get news of what was happening in Wola from the arriving groups. On 7 August 1944, they took over the entire ground floor, throwing me out of my flat on the first floor. Gestapo men searched my flat, they were particularly interested in documents. From that moment on I was guarded.
In the building opposite the vicarage, at Sokołowska Street 5, where the Soviet prisoners of war had been kept before the uprising, from 2 August 1944 on they kept groups of men brought from the city or taken from the church. Some of these men were employed at demolishing barricades. From 3 August 1944 a part of these men began to be taken away in groups and then they vanished without a trace.
And so on 3 or 4 August 1944 a group was taken away in which there were Trojanowski – a clerk in Lilpop’s company, and Antoni Dąbrowski, the owner of the metal goods factory, a resident of the house at Syreny Street 5. After they had been taken away, their families searched for them in vain.
Up to the time of the Gestapo’a arrival the gendarmerie was in charge of the civilians, and their command was either in the vicarage or in the house at Wolska Street 82. From the time the Gestapo arrived at the vicarage, the vicarage was the place where orders concerning civilians originated; these are, however, only my observations.
From 5 August 1944 the influx of civilian groups increased considerably, there were days when the church was crowded, it could contain up to five thousand people. Transportations to the transit camp in Pruszków were as frequent.
During my stay in the vicarage, the Gestapo did not examine any detained insurgents. After the war I was told by the painter Tadeusz Gronowski (a resident at Okólnik Street 9, the former Krasiński Library in Warsaw [Biblioteka Krasińskich w Warszawie]) that he had been examined and beaten by the Gestapo during an examination a few weeks after I had left Warsaw.
I don’t know the names of the Gestapo men (who stayed in the vicarage). Doctor Stefan Rafa (presently residing at św. Wojciecha Street near Syreny Street) was with me in the vicarage, perhaps he knows the names of these Gestapo men. The following persons were with me in the vicarage: Fathers Stanisław Kulesza, Stanisław Mączka, and Roman Ciesiałkiewicz.
On 6 August, the Gestapo men took these three priests and the organist Tadeusz Kozak (presently he is the organist at the All Saints Church in Grzybowski Square). Kozak told me that they had been taken to the house in Sokołowska Street 5, and that the priests had been taken away by car. After the war, a woman whose name I do not know told me that she had seen all three priest from my parish being shot by the Germans in Moczydło Street.
At that time I was moved to an upstairs room. They informed me that I was being kept as a hostage. After a while a Gestapo man came to me, he took me and ten men brought from the church and said that since someone had fired a shot at a German soldier from the church’s bell tower, we would be executed. The situation was explained, there had been no shot. I was released.
I caught dysentery and on 9 August 1944, as a sick person, I was allowed to go to the church. On the next day I was taken to the transit camp in Pruszków in a transport of the sick.
On 9 August 1944, having entered the church, I saw that there were around five thousand people there. These were people from Elektoralna, Chłodna, Leszno and other streets. At that time Father Jachimowski, a chaplain, was in the church; he also disappeared without a trace.
A few women in childbirth lay in the chancel, there were a few babies, the sick lay on the floor. Doctor Rawa, who accidentally happened to be in the church, could not do much without sanitary equipment and medicines. People were not permitted to go outside the church to attend to their bodily needs.
I provide the above information from my memory, I had not been making any notes.
At that the report was concluded and read out.