KAZIMIERZ SZAJEWSKI

Warsaw, 15 March 1946. Judge Alicja Germasz, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the gravity of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Kazimierz Szajewski
Date of birth 26 February 1906
Names of parents Jan and Władysława
Occupation day-shift worker employed in “Rurkiewicz” company in Warsaw
Education four grades of elementary school
Place of residence Warsaw, Wolska Street 42
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I lived with my family for ten years in the house at Zawiszy Street 43. I was there during the uprising as well. On 1 August 1944 we could hear the sounds of fighting. There were Germans on Magistracka and Zagłoby Streets. They were being attacked by insurgents, who were moving through our block. On 2 August 1944, the insurgents retreated from their positions. Germans burst into our block through the garden from the side of Magistracka Street. Eighteen German soldiers and “Ukrainians” armed with grenades entered.

At that moment I was standing in a group of eighteen men and around ten women on theground floor of a stairwell. The Germans ordered all of us to get out into the yard.

Atthesame time two Germans brought out a tenant of our house, Marian Kowalski, from a ground floor flat. In the garden one of the soldiers shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

Then we, that is the men, were grouped in the corner of the garden between the front building and the outbuilding.

The women standing in the yard were allowed to go freely to the street.

Then, on a German’s order, one of the “Ukrainians” threw two grenades at us, one after the other. After the first grenade we all fell to the ground, I heard the death rattles of the men lying next to me. After the second grenade everything went quiet, and I then understood that everyone else was dead. I was hit in the face and left arm; I did not lose consciousness.

Lying on the ground, I saw that the Germans were going around the house and taking out the men that had remained in the flats. I saw that one of the “Ukrainians” brought out a 77-year-old man, a tenant of our house (I don’t remember his name), led him to the place where we were lying and then shot him in the face with a pistol. The old man dropped dead. Later, the same “Ukrainian” brought out four more tenants (one of them was Józef Woźniak, I didn’t know the rest of them by name) and then close to the spot where I was lying, he shot each of them in the face. All of them dropped dead.

Then the Germans and Ukrainians left our property. I got up then and saw that all of my companions were all dead, lying one next to another. Most of them had shattered skulls, their brains spilling out. Among the wounded were: Jan Gec, Stanisław Gec, Czesław Kołacz, Kazimierz Kaczanowski, Franciszek Łuszczak, Jan Świstek, Marian Wąsowski, Jan Czyżak, Lewandowski, Woźniak, I do not remember any other names.

Everyone, the residents of our house that is, were civilians who did not participate in the uprising. I went back to my flat. On the way, I looked into a flat on the ground floor, where we had put a wounded insurgent named Byliec (his first name was Jan, I believe), around 40 years old, at that time residing at Chłodna Street 53. The insurgent had no military markings. I saw him lying in bed with a gunshot wound through his head.

Having left my flat, I went out to Zawiszy Street and went to the Red Cross Hospital in Obozowa Street. My face and arm were dressed there. My arm was put in splints, the doctor said (I don’t remember the doctor’s name) that a bone had been shot through in the area of the wrist, that I had a pierced lip, and a fragment of my palate and four teeth had been knocked out.

I spent four days in the hospital with a fever, and then, since the Germans were coming, I went to Babice, and then to a village called Wypalenisko (commune of Chodaków, Sochaczew County). I lay there for two months, being treated by Dr Król from Chodaków. To date the functioning of my left arm is limited, my lips have healed crookedly, I have constant bleeding from my nose and my mouth, and my hearing in my left ear is impaired.

I only wish to add that the Germans, as soon as they entered our property, started throwing incendiary grenades at the front house, which immediately caught fire.

The report was read out.