JANUSZ WAGNER

Warsaw, 21 October 1947. Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Janusz Bogumił Wagner
Names of parents Bogumił and Zofia, née Garlicka
Date of birth 31 March 1898 in Orsza
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Place of residence Warsaw, Wilcza Street 60, flat 15
Education engineer
Occupation professor of the Agricultural Academy in Cieszyn
State affiliation and nationality Polish

On 1 August 1944, I was in my flat at Sucha Street 12 in Warsaw. When the Uprising broke out at around 5.00 p.m., there were German anti-aircraft artillery posts on the odd-numbered side of Sucha Street; soldiers from the same arm of service also occupied Pole Mokotowskie. At around 7.20 p.m. a detachment comprising a few anti-aircraft artillerymen threw out the residents of our house and neighboring ones. I saw how a young man was taken aside; he did not rejoin the group (I do not know his surname). The others were allowed to enter the basements, where we stayed for the night. The next day we were led to the building of the Voivodeship Office at Sucha Street, where we remained for ten days. In the main, the building was garrisoned by office workers of the Voivodeship administration, Germans, who had been provided with weapons.

Around 6 August (I do not remember the exact date) I saw a group comprising a dozen or so men and women carrying a white flag; they were walking along Filtrowa Street in the direction of Narutowicza Square.

I do not know who they were, nor from or to where they were going.

The garrison of the Voivodeship Office opened fire on these people and I saw them fall. I donot know whether anyone from the group survived or what happened to the bodies.

While I was in the building of the Voivodeship Office I did not hear that the Germans had received an order to murder Poles. However, when a few women were released from the building on 3 August I heard the Germans warn them that they could be shot in the street.

Already around 2 August (I do not remember the exact date) the Germans had set fire to the houses on the even-numbered side of Sucha Street. This action was by no means one arising from military necessity, for at the time the insurgents were not conducting any operations. Around 2 August large numbers of people were taken from Sucha and Raszyńska streets to the building of the State Forestry Authority. I heard that executions were held there around 10 August.

I cannot provide any more details concerning the case in hand.

Around 10 August, the German units withdrew from Kolonia Staszica, and were replaced, as I heard, by “Ukrainians” from Kamiński’s division.

When they were leaving the building of the Voivodeship Office, the Germans loaded me and a group of some 50 civilians who were in the building onto cars and drove us off to Okęcie. While travelling through the small square at Filtrowa Street I saw how the “Ukrainians” were throwing out civilians from the neighboring houses. A few bodies with gunshot wounds were lying in Filtrowa Street near the small square. I saw drunken soldiers shooting at people.

The Germans from the Voivodeship Office left us in Okęcie, where we stayed the night. After, we boarded the electric narrow-gauge train to Pruszków.

I saw hardly any civilians in Okęcie, mainly units of gendarmes and airmen.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.