LECH SULIKOWSKI

Warsaw, 8 December 1945. The investigating judge, Halina Wereńko, heard the person mentioned below as a witness. After informing the witness about the criminal liability for giving false testimony and about the meaning of the oath, the judge took the oath from the witness, who then testified as follows:


First name and surname Lech Hipolit Sulikowski
Age 19
Parents’ names Marian and Zofia
Place of residence Warszawa, Konopacka Street 21 flat 37
Occupation 1st year student at the technical college for building
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

In August 1944, together with my parents and brother Wiesław (23 years old), I was living in Praga at Stalowa Street 73, flat 13. Around 20 August, fearing the roundups organized by the Germans, I escaped with my parents from Praga to the village of Płudy, Białołęka Dworska.

On 27 August 1944, Stanisława Wawrzyszewska came to us—I don’t know her current address, up until 28 November 1944 she was living at Stalowa Street 73, flat 14 or 12. Wawrzyszewska told us that my brother Wiesław—whom I knew was supposed to have fled on 26 August, for fear of a roundup, to the village of Płudy—on that day at 11-12:00 a.m. was being led by German pilots, along with a group of eleven men, to the 36th Infantry Regiment (in their barracks) at 11 Listopada Street, where the Praga Gestapo was located, and which was also a gathering point for the deportation of men. On 26 August, my mother, alarmed by the lack of news from my brother, set off to Praga. The next day, after talking with Wawrzyszewska, my father set off to Praga and immediately returned to me and told me that my brother had been detained in the Gestapo building. On 28 August my mother returned and told me that she had heard from Sikorska (I don’t know her first name, but she currently resides at Środkowa Street 12) that my brother and her daughter’s fiancé, Władysław Pieńkowski, Stefan Marszalski, and another young man whose name I don’t know, on 26 August, around 5 p.m., had dug a pit about 2 m deep and 2.5 x 2.5 m in size, which Sikorska herself had seen. Sikorska identified my brother from his clothing. She didn’t know him, but she recognized Marszalski and Pieńkowski. After this news, we didn’t hear anything more about my brother.

On 14 April 1945, I dug up the pit in the Jewish cemetery, looking for a brother’s body, but found nothing. On 15 April I was digging elsewhere and found one corpse, on 16 April, still digging in the same pit, I found my brother’s body. On 17 April, we dug up the whole pit, digging up the bodies of nine men together with my brother’s body. These corpses, with the exception of two that remained in the Jewish cemetery, were buried in the cemetery in Bródno—the death certificates were written up in the parish in Bródno. The corpses of two people who were not identified remained, as I mentioned, in the Jewish cemetery, in the same place. Next to the pit that I dug up, looking for my brother, there are two more pits that I know about. I suppose there are about eight corpses in each of them. I believe so because of the size of the pits. In the place where my brother was buried, a cross now stands.

(In the course of his testimony, the witness sketched out a map of the place where he had found the body of his brother, marked with the letter a, and the locations of the unexhumed graves, marked on the sketch with the letters b and c). Among the dug-up corpses, families and friends identified the following:

1. Wiesław Sulikowski, my brother,

2. Władysław Pieńkowski,

3. Stefan Marszalski,

4. Władysław Pożarowski,

5. Zdzisław Gil,

6. Stanisław Walkowski,

7. Stefan, I don’t remember his surname.

All of them had been shot in the back of the head and their hands had been tied behind their backs with a hemp rope 5 mm thick. While digging up the grave, I spoke with the cemetery caretaker—I don’t know his name—who, when asked about the time when the people buried in the grave that I excavated had been executed, explained that on 27 and 28 August 1944, during both evenings, he had heard gunshots and remembers that at that time the grave marked a on the sketch had been dug. My mother, walking along Odrowąż Street on 29 August 1944, saw that the grave marked on the sketch with the letter a had already been filled.

I didn’t find out any more about the execution of my brother. As far as I know, no one survived from among those who were to be executed, and I could not find an eye witness to the execution.

The report was read out.

The witness additionally testifies that his father, Marian Sulikowski, knows nothing beyond what the witness has testified. However, Jerzy Włodarski, residing at Inżynierska Street 6 – the city bus depot – had dug up the grave along with he himself. When digging up graves a, b, and c, both his parents were there.

[Attachment to the report of the interrogation of the witness Lech Sulikowski of 18 December 1945. Sketched map of the graves located at the Jewish cemetery during the 1944 uprising]