Warsaw, 21 May 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), 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 | Bronisław Brzeziński |
| Date and place of birth | 20 July 1905 in Warsaw |
| Names of parents | Jakub and Antonina, née Kurzawa |
| Occupation of the father | laborer |
| State affiliation and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Education | four grades at an elementary school |
| Occupation | caretaker |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Chocimska Street 31, flat 1 |
| Criminal record | none |
I have been a caretaker in the house at Chocimska Street 31 since 1928. In 1942 (I think) the house was seized by the Germans, and all Poles – except for me and the house administrator, lawyer Jan Freyer (currently domiciled in Warsaw at Koszykowa Street 54, flat 9) – were thrown out. From that time on the house was occupied by German railwaymen and Gestapo men. The latter were fewer in number than the railwaymen. Of the railwaymen, I recall the following surnames: Heller, Lipke, Kölig (?) – inspector at the Main Railway Station, and Bobusch. Before the war, Bobusch had been a longshoreman in Hamburg. One night in the winter of 1943, Bobusch and one more railwayman from our house whose surname I do not recall shot another German railwayman from our house whose surname I also do not know. They did it in front of the house, before my very eyes. Bobusch forbade me to talk about it, claiming that the railwayman who had been shot had been working for the Gestapo, while he, Bobusch, was a proletarian. As far as I know, an investigation into this case which was conducted by the Gestapo did not yield any results. In any event, Bobusch was not arrested.
More or less two weeks before the Uprising the railwaymen and their families had left Warsaw and the Gestapo men stayed in the house, but they had also sent their families out of Warsaw. Afterthe last Sunday of July 1944 even the Gestapo would no longer spend nights at Chocimska Street 31. Of the surnames of the Gestapo men, I recall the following: Richard Koglin – Reichsdeutsch living somewhere in the vicinity of Szczecin, Mende – also Reichsdeutsch, Otto Dimm, three brothers Trimmer – Volksdeutsche of whom one was called Richard, Schwarstein (?) – Reichsdeutsch, Rondio – Volksdeutsch from Warsaw.
At the moment, I recall that Mende was “taking care” of the Jews in the Hotel Polski on Długa Street.
Apart from them, I remember two Gestapo men, the brothers Schulz – Volksdeutsche who lived at Chocimska Street 33 – they were especially cruel, for instance they used to shoot at people from their flat.
Apart from them, Reichsdeutsch Fritz Ristner from Tirol was living in my house at Chocimska Street 31 – he was the chief of the Arbeitsamt in Rembertów.
All the above listed Gestapo men were non-commissioned officers – officers did not live in my house.
I recall one more resident of my house, Volksdeutsch Lotholz, a widow of a Gestapo man who had been killed in the Ghetto. She was a daughter of a butcher, Komorowski, from Towarowa Street in Warsaw; her behavior towards Poles was marked with cruelty.
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house, in which – apart from me, my wife Janina and sons Marian and Ryszard (deceased) – there were also two shop owners: Pelagia Kisielińska (currently domiciled at Chocimska Street 31) and Helena Kamocka (I heard that she owns a shop in Gdańsk now). Administrator Freyer and his family had gone a few days before the Uprising for a summer holiday to Piaseczno.
The insurgents were concentrated in the building of the National Institute of Hygiene at Chocimska Street 24, from where they shelled Unii Lubelskiej Square and Klonowa Street. The Germans occupied Unii square, from where they shelled Chocimska and Klonowa Streets. On 2 or 3 August I went to the attic, from where I could observe Puławska Street. Tanks were going up and down the street. The houses at Puławska and Rakowiecka streets were aflame, and I saw that the station of MZK [Municipal Department of Communication] was burning, as well as the houses at Puławska Street 11, 17, 19, etc. I saw the Germans march large groups of people from both ends of Puławska Street to Rakowiecka Street.
I stayed in my house until 5 August.That morning, a Gestapo man, Richard Koglin. came to the house. The insurgents were no longer present in the National Institute of Hygiene, as they had retreated on the night of 4/5 August. On the morning of 5 August, the SS-men began to capture the area in the direction of the National Institute of Hygiene, proceeding from the side of Unii square and Klonowa Street. Koglin told me to accompany him to his flat on the second floor. Then I looked out of the window to Skolimowska Street and I saw that it was lined on both sides with "Ukrainians" (some of them had labswool headgear with red trim). I would like to emphasize that Skolimowska Street was also in the German quarter, and only the house number 5 was inhabited by some forty Poles. Koglin and I went downstairs, where he left me alone. The six of us (my family and citizens Kisielińska and Kamocka) were approached by "Ukrainians" who placed us with our hands up in front of the gate. However, Koglin appeared again and yielding to my request, he took us to Litewska Street 12.
A group of people had already been gathered at Litewska Street 12 – there were Poles, Volksdeutsche, and employees of the Swedish embassy at Bagatela Street. We took up in one of the flats together with a caretaker from Chocimska Street 33, Antoni Mileuszek (currently domiciled in Płock, where he owns a textile shop).
On 5 August at about 19:00the Gestapo men Koglin and Dimm told us to go with them to Chocimska Street 31 in order to bring mattresses from there. The entire street was filled with smoke, women with children were running around the street, and the "Ukrainians" were demolishing shops. The house at Skolimowska Street 5 was ablaze, and the neighboring ones were also burning. A few corpses were lying in front of our house, and a dozen or so corpses of men and women were lying in the square in front of the National Institute of Hygiene. Before my very eyes, a German SS-man set fire to my flat at Chocimska Street 31, and I also saw that the SS-men – residents of our house – were setting their flats on fire.
Then I returned to Litewska Street. As I was walking, or rather driving with Milczarek with those mattresses along aleja Szucha, I passed by a group of some 300 people, all men if I am not mistaken, including many of my acquaintances from Puławska Street 1, 3, 5, and 7. They were going from the Gestapo headquarters at aleja Szucha 25 to the premises of the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces through the gate at aleja Szucha 14. They were escorted by a Gestapo man whom I knew by sight; he lived at Chocimska Street 17, but I do not know his surname. None of the acquaintances whom I then saw then has ever returned.
From 5 August to 5 September I was at Litewska Street 12.
In the adjacent building, at Litewska Street 14, there was a labor camp for Poles. On 6 August I went to the attic, from where I could see the courtyard of the house in which the camp was located. A row of elongated tables stood in the courtyard, and both ends of each table were constantly guarded by armed Gestapo men. On the ground by each table, there was a pile of clothes – men’s, women’s,and children’s. There were also a few prisoners in grey prison clothes by each table, and they were searching particular garments. All objects found in the pockets had to be segregated and put in separate suitcases or boxes –:there was for instance a suitcase for watches, another one for fountain pens, etc. I also noticed that the clothes were brought by prisoners on platforms of the “Motor” company from the direction of aleja Szucha. Segregated objects and clothes were taken away in military cars – clothes and small objects having been packed first in boxes and then in sacks. This "work" progressed in this way during my entire stay at Litewska Street.
I cannot tell how many cars per day came for the packed clothes. Anyway, a car or sometimes a few cars waiting for loading in front of the camp were a frequent sight.
I talked once with one of those Polish prisoners who were occupied with the segregation of things to be deported. He managed to tell me (since any communication with them was strictly forbidden I do not know his surname) that these things came from the premises of the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces, where corpses of mass-executed people were being incinerated. Almost every day until my departure I saw smoke belching from the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces and the smell of burning corpses issued from there.
At Litewska Street, we were visited a few times by Scholl, a Gestapo chauffer who had been a caretaker in the house at Chocimska Street 28 before the war. He had access to the premises of the Inspectorate and he often went there. He told us that several times he had seen great numbers of people being executed and burnt. Those people had to undress before the execution. Among others, he had seen our mutual friend, caretaker Franciszek from Klonowa Street 16, being burnt. I do not know his surname.
We would sometimes look out from the gate at Litewska Street to Marszałkowska Street, and we saw the Germans burning corpses that they had collected in the street, in Bajer’s butchers shop at Marszałkowska Street 19, at the corner with Oleandrów Street. Wooden billets collected especially for that purpose were lying by the shop. We often watched such burning of corpses there.
Sometimes the Germans took us for labor to aleja Szucha 25. Every time I had an opportunity to take a look at the courtyard of the Gestapo headquarters, there were always people gathered there. Sometimes more, sometimes fewer, but people always stood there. One time I saw the inhabitants of Siekierki.
A few times I had to take a cart with Milczarek and go under the escort of Gestapo men who had previously lived at Chocimska Street 31 to transport things which they were taking from that house. Once I saw how the employees of the National Institute of Hygiene, in white medical coats and with the flag of the Red Cross, were burying corpses lying in the street and the square.
Once, it was towards the end of August I think, at about 05:00, I saw how two Gestapo men led some haggard, blindfolded man from the direction of Marszałkowska Street. They took him to aleja Szucha 25. In the evening of the same day I saw that they led him to the corner of Marszałkowska and Litewska streets, from where he went on his own in the direction of insurgent positions on Zbawiciela Square, carrying (as in aleja Szucha) some envelope or some papers. I learned from people who were working at aleja Szucha 25 on that day that he was a peace envoy from the insurgents.
Apart from my six-person group and Milczarek, the following people were at Litewska Street 12: Bronisława Kowalczyk (currently domiciled at Litewska Street 12), who was on good terms with the Germans; for instance, she had access to the labor camp at Litewska Street 14 (approximately from the end of August there were no prisoners there); Józefa Brzezińska (currently domiciled at Litewska Street 12); two sons of a caretaker from the house at aleja Róż where TUR [Workers’ Universities Society] was situated; they live there to this day, but I do not know their surname.
As I was not working, on 5 September the Gendarmerie deported me and my family to Włochy, where we were set free. Only those who were working stayed at Litewska Street 12.
Soon after my return to Warsaw, on 17 January 1945, I went to Skolimowska Street 5. In the courtyard of the burnt out house I found many human bones, including a prosthetic leg – I recall that one of the residents of that house had such a prosthesis.
At the time I saw remains of a few people in almost all neighboring houses.
At this point the report was concluded and read out.