The fourth day of the trial
Presiding judge: – Please bring in witness Rev. Igielski. The witness, as a clergyman of a denomination legally recognized by the state, is exempt from taking an oath pursuant to Article 110, section 2; nevertheless, I have a statutory obligation to instruct every witness, pursuant to Article 107, that they are obliged to testify the whole truth and not to conceal anything. A witness who intentionally gives false testimony or conceals the truth commits an offence that is punishable by imprisonment or jail time of up to five years.
Jan Igielski, Roman Catholic priest, Redemptorist, born on 12 January 1915, place of residence: Braniewo, no relationship to the parties.
Will the witness please tell the Tribunal what he knows about the case?
Witness: – As to the murdering of Redemptorists, I first have to point out that I was not a direct witness, that is, I did not see these incidents, because I had left a few days before the uprising. If I had been an eyewitness, I think I would have suffered the same fate as those who were burned.
Since they were friars of my order, as soon as I returned to Warsaw, at the end of [January?] 1945, after the invasion by the Soviet army, I started asking around what had happened to them. I interviewed many eyewitnesses and people who had heard about the incident, but mostly eyewitnesses. The majority of the people I interviewed were men who had witnessed my fellow friars’ end. According to the testimonies, the murder took place as follows.
On the night of 5 August 1944, so a few days after the outbreak of the uprising, the German troops invaded our monastery, expecting to encounter a strong insurgent resistance. However, they did not find any soldiers, but only cellars full of civilians, especially women and children. There were also men. Apart from these, there were thirty clergymen, including fifteen priests, nine friars – novices, and six clerics. They were all instructed to go out into the yard, and they were lined up at Krochmalna Street. The friars stood at the head of the group. After the men and women were lined up, they started marching along Wolska Street to the Church of St. Adalbert. There, some of the men were separated from the group and allowed to go towards the Church of St. Adalbert, behind the wires, where a temporary concentration camp was located. Some of the men were detained, I don’t know why. The friars stayed there, while the rest were divided into groups of a dozen or so people. The first group consisted of Redemptorist friars. At dawn, as soon as the sun started rising, the first group was instructed to go to the other side of Wolska Street, across from the Church of St. Adalbert. Shots were heard from there. In a moment, the second and third groups were escorted. An eyewitness who was in the first group and managed to escape, although he had received three shots, and who now lives at Chłodna Street, testified that the execution went as follows: everyone was lined up in a row, and one of the Gestapo officers, a senior officer, approached every one of them and fired shots from the back at their necks. When they collapsed, he would finish the victims off with additional shots. In this way, the whole first group was murdered. However, the head of the monastery was not shot from the back. The officer approached him from the front and shot him, and the friar collapsed dead.
Presiding judge: – How many friars were murdered then?
Witness: – At least twenty-four out of thirty, because three friars stayed at home, and, according to witnesses, three or four were not murdered with the rest, because while the first three groups were being murdered, a German soldier or officer arrived by motorcycle and brought some document, which was apparently an order to stop the execution. The men from other groups are alive and are also testifying, just like those who covered up the traces of the burning of corpses. In the afternoon, at 4 p.m., they were summoned from the building at Sokołowska Street, opposite the parish building, to gather in the Church of St. Adalbert. There, one of the Germans announced from the pulpit that everyone should have been executed and murdered, because they had participated in the uprising and they were rebels, but the Führer pardoned them and they would spare their lives, and that now the people had to go and cover up the traces.
Presiding judge: – What happened with the corpses?
Witness: – Immediately after the execution, the corpses were stacked and set on fire. They burned. On the third day, the people who were told to clean it up in the afternoon could still tell that those had been Redemptorist priests.
Presiding judge: – Who were the people in the cellars?
Witness: – They were civilians who had gathered in the cellars, using them as shelter. Our cellars are very spacious, so they could fit up to four hundred people.
Presiding judge: – Are there any questions? There are no questions, thank you.