STANISŁAW PLEBAŃSKI

Warsaw, 3 January 1946. Examining Judge Alicja Germasz interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:

Stanisław Plebański, born on 20 July 1889, son of Franciszek and Stanisława, resident in Warsaw at św. Teresy Street 2, an engineer, religion – Roman Catholic, criminal record – none.

During the Uprising I lived at Marszałkowska Street 31. Around noon on Saturday, 5 August 1944, Germans burst into this house, having first set fire to the gate. They ordered all of the people sheltering in the basements to leave the building. They led us out into Marszałkowska Street. There, they separated the women from the men. We, the men, numbering a hundred or so, were ordered to lie down on the pavement directly opposite house no. 33. After an hour we were told to get up, whereupon they led us to the corner of Marszałkowska and Litewska Streets. We stood there for approximately one hour, guarded by a dozen or so “Ukrainians” and Gestapo men. We stood, crowded together, by the wall of the house (Marszałkowska Street, corner of Litewska Street).

I do not know what was going on at the time on the other side of the street.

Next, they led us and a few other groups – a few hundred people in total – along Litewska Street to aleja Szucha and the Gestapo building. There were around a thousand people, including women and children, in the courtyard. I was taken to a room in which there were three German officers. They showered me with abuse, but did not ask any questions. Soon after, I managed to get myself freed from the Gestapo, by accidentally running into a German acquaintance, Beseler, who was a chauffeur whom I knew from my previous period of imprisonment in 1940. In return for a bribe, this German took me and a few other people out of the building, and led us to the fire brigade station in Unii Lubelskiej Square. In the middle of September, I and some other persons left this location for Pruszków.

I would like to add that to date I have not received any information concerning the fate of the men who, together with myself, had been led out of house no. 31 and nearby buildings in Marszałkowska Street and taken to the Gestapo.

By chance, I learnt from an acquaintance of mine, engineer Zygmunt Wachowski (I do not know his address, but I am aware that two months ago he was working at SPB in Kielce), that he had been taken by Germans from 6 Sierpnia Street to the Gestapo building at the same time as me, and had managed to escape just before the men in his group were to be executed on the premises of the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces.

The report was read out.