WACŁAW PRZYBYSZ

Warsaw, 28 April 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Wacław Przybysz
Names of parents Andrzej and Józefa n ée Masiak
Date of birth 5 February 1911, Warsaw
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Education elementary school
Occupation fireman in the Ministry of Supplies
Place of residence Warsaw, Wiktorska Street 3, flat 12

The outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising caught me in the house at Puławska Street 47, where only three residents lived. On 1 August 1944, when the shooting began, together with the residents of our house, I crossed Dworkowa Street and headed for the basements of the house at Puławska Street 49, on the other corner of Dworkowa Street, where a post office was located. The houses in Dworkowa Street had been seized by the German gendarmerie and a unit of “Ukrainians” (I cannot tell what unit exactly); the gendarmerie command was located at Dworkowa Street 3. The insurgents attacked from the direction of Puławska Street and Willowa Street. The operation ended on 1 August: I did not witness how the fighting progressed, being in the basement of the house at number 49. There were no insurgents there and nobody shot at the Germans from that house.

On 3 August around 1.00 p.m., the gendarmerie from Dworkowa Street and the “Ukrainians” closed in on the houses at Puławska Street 49 and 51. Everybody was ordered out to the courtyard of the house at Puławska Street 49, where the residents of the house at number 51 were taken as well. In the house at number 49, only Jan Aigin, the caretaker and his wife (both still residing at that address) had been left, as well as Jan Zamojski and his wife. A gendarme took the residents of the house at number 47 back to the house. All people from the houses at Puławska Street 49 and 51, including my common-law wife Zofia Skrzypczak, her 11-year-old son Zbigniew Skrzypczak and myself, were gathered at the courtyard of the house at number 49. There were over 150 of us, mostly women and children. We were told to form the rows of three and then taken through the back gate to the steps leading from Dworkowa Street to Zajączkowska Street, which runs to the intersecting Belwederska Street. Our group was being led by the gendarmes and the “Ukrainians.” Among the gendarmes, I recognized Malicki, a Volksdeutsch: the caretaker of the house at Dworkowa Street 3 knows him.

In front of the house at Dworkowa Street 3, where the gendarmerie command was located, we were stopped and I saw Malicki talking to a gendarmerie officer who was standing on the pavement near the house. I do not know the name of the officer but he was a very stout and tall man. I did not understand the conversation, which was conducted in German.

Immediately afterwards, Malicki came up to the steps, which were blocked by barbed-wire entanglements, removed the obstacle and addressed us in Polish: “Get down the stairs, and whatever the insurgents do, we are not responsible for that.” There were no insurgents in the area and there could not have been any, since the houses in Dworkowa Street had been seized by the gendarmerie and there were heavy machine guns installed on the roofs of those houses which overlooked the district that had been taken over by the gendarmerie. When the group was going down the steps, and I, walking at the forefront, had come some 100 meters down Zajączkowska Street towards Belwederska Street, Malicki and other gendarmes standing above opened fire on us from light machine guns. I fell down, unwounded, and as I was lying, I heard gunshots. After a while, Malicki came down to the people lying there and finished off the wounded, shooting at them with a revolver.

I did not see whether other gendarmes also finished off the wounded.

This had lasted until 5.00 p.m. Then, three paramedics with the Polish Red Cross badges arrived from Grottgera Street, moving towards us down Zajączkowska Street. They approached the people who were lying down and quietly told them not to move. I heard them ask the gendarmes if there were any injured Germans and if they could take away our wounded. They were granted permission and took away some of the people, myself and the uninjured who pretended to be wounded. They took us to the Institution for Paralytics at Belwederska Street 20. Immediately afterwards, they again left with the stretcher and brought in the wounded and the dead.

I do not know how many wounded and dead there were. A maximum of 30 people had survived the execution, including husband and wife Stanisław and Maria Szymańczyk (currently residing in Warsaw at Wiktorska Street 3). Maria Szymańczk was twice wounded in the leg. My common-law wife Zofia Skrzypczak (residing with me); Mrs. Kowalczyk, the caretaker of the house at Puławska Street 51; Mrs. Bursztyńska, currently the owner of the shop at Puławska Street 51 in Warsaw. The following people were shot dead: Zbigniew Szkrzypczak, Zofia’s son; Mrs. Misiurska, the owner of the bar; the wife and three children of my neighbour, the caretaker of the house at Puławska Street 45 (I do not know the name); Misiurski, the owner of the bar; the owner of the barber’s at Puławska Street 51 and many others. I do not know the exact number of murdered people, there might have been around one hundred.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.