JAN CZUGAJEWSKI

Warsaw, 5 December 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Jan Piotr Czugajewski
Date and place of birth 17 May 1920, Warsaw
Parents’ names Jan and Katarzyna, née Kowalczyk
Father’s profession carpenter
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Profession office worker
Place of residence Warsaw, Czerniakowska Street 176, flat 9
Criminal record none

From the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising until more or less the middle of October, I was at Czerniakowska Street. The area delimited by Rozbrat, Górnośląska, Solec and Łazienkowska streets was occupied by insurgent forces. The Germans would retake houses held by the insurgents and evict the entire civilian population. I heard that while evicting the populace, they would execute individual people, throw grenades into basements occupied by the helpless residents, and set fire to the houses.

By 12 or 13 September 1944 the area was completely under German control. People would hide, singly, in the basements of the burnt out houses. In September, while in my hiding place in the ruins of the Alabaster factory at Czerniakowska Street, near Mączna Street, I observed a group of some 30 people being led by SS-men somewhere from Fabryczna Street in the direction of Przemysłowa Street.

I do not know from where and why these people had been taken. Later, in the gate of house no. 185/187 at Czerniakowska Street, I saw a pile of bodies. One could conjecture that these were the bodies of the people whom I had seen being led.

We – I and my companions, six in total: my brother Stefan Czugajewski (resident with myself), the two brothers Makowski, one of them Józef (before the Uprising they had resided at the corner of Solec and Ludna streets), and "Leszek", I do not know his surname – frequently heard shots coming from Czerniakowska and neighboring streets. [While walking] in search of food, I saw the bodies of civilians lying around in the gates of houses; they had been killed by the Germans.

In the middle of October, under fire from German heavy machine guns, ”Leszek” and I managed to get through to the other bank of the Vistula.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.