JANINA ŻELAZOWSKA

On 15 January 1946, in Warsaw, Acting Investigating Judge, Associate Judge Antoni Krzętowski, delegated to the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and reminded of the oath sworn on 17 August 1945, the witness testified as follows:

Forename and surname: Janina Żelazowska (already in the case files, personal details on sheet no. 94)

I took part in the exhumation conducted within the precincts of the former military prison on the corner of Gęsia and Zamenhofa streets. I was there as a minutes taker. I absolutely confirm that there were 66 corpses and 11 remains extracted from pit C during the exhumation (the witness was shown the site plan drawn by Tadeusz Rudzki, which was an attachment to the examination report of 30 May 1945). After our attempts to identify the corpses, which was only successful in one case (the document bearing the name of Wolf Goldszlak), we buried them in the same pit C. However, the remains were put in pit D, which had been dug by us especially for that purpose. We also used pit D to bury the corpses of the prisoners brought from Dzika Street 17, there were about 200 of them, and to bury some ashes extracted from sewer F.

The exhumation reports that were compiled at that time are in the Polish Red Cross; I rule out any possibility of making a mistake regarding the number of exhumed bodies. The bodies exhumed from pit C and brought from Dzika Street were arranged by us during our work in the courtyard; it might have appeared to a person such as Mazurek, who had little or nothing to do with exhumation on a large scale, that the number of corpses was higher than it really was, especially due to the large size of the courtyard where the bodies were lying.

As for the site plan drawn when I was giving my testimony on 17 August 1945, and which is on sheet 98 in the case files, the buildings that are marked with numbers 9 and 8 should indeed be located a little nearer buildings 10 and 11.

We buried the corpses that had been extracted from pit C in the same pit, rather than in pit D, because in our opinion they were corpses of the members of the Judenrat and so we did not want to mix them with the other corpses (those from Dzika Street) so as to make it easier for the Jewish Community to extract them if they requested to do so.

I correct the part of my testimony regarding the place where we buried the remains of the 11 corpses dug up from pit C. We did not bury them in pit D, as has been recorded in the present report, but in pit C together with the 66 corpses.

I took part in the exhumation throughout its duration; I did not walk away anywhere. Doctor Rott was not present all the time and so he could have made a mistake regarding the place where the remains were buried.

The witness interview report was read out.