LUCJAN STACHLEWSKI

Warsaw, 20 February 1950. Trainee Judge Irena Skonieczna, 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 Lucjan Stachlewski
Date and place of birth 4 December 1897, Izdebno, Błonie county
Parents’ names Franciszek and Aniela, née Kołodziejczak
Father’s occupation laborer
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education 4 classes of technical school
Occupation locksmith
Place of residence Warsaw, Chałubińskiego Street 4, flat 8
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the building of the Ministry of Transport at Chałubińskiego Street 4. The Germans – railwaymen – forced all of the Poles gathered in the Ministry into the boiler room in the basement of the building. By the evening of 1 August 1944 the boiler room was filled with people whom the outbreak of the Uprising had caught by surprise in this area. In the evening the Germans divided us into two groups. The prisoners from the first group were railway employees, while the second group comprised people who had been unable to present a railway employment card. During the night from 1 to 2 August, the Germans instructed one of the women who was detained with us to send a message to the insurgents, who at the time were occupying the building of the Nursing School, which during the War housed the Trauma Surgery Department of the Child Jesus Hospital; the gist of the communication was that if the insurgents did not withdraw from the area that night, the Germans would shoot all of the people gathered in the boiler room. The insurgents left the hospital, withdrawing to the premises of the technical university. We spent three days of the Uprising in the basements, in a room that was intended to house a telephone exchange. Soon this room was overcrowded, too. In consequence, the Germans led “prisoners 2”, some 65 in number, up to the sixth floor of the building.

We, the employees of the Ministry, numbering around twenty, stayed in the boiler room. The sixth floor was occupied by men, for after three days the Germans had released the women; only four women did not want to leave the Ministry. The Germans used these people to perform the hardest and most difficult tasks. We were forced to work on the premises of the building. Until more or less 10 September 1944 the Germans in our area did not shoot any of the hostages. On that day “prisoners 2” were driven on foot to Pruszków. On 16 September we, the employees of the Ministry of Transport, were conveyed by German railwaymen to Pruszków in motor vehicles.

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