Warsaw, 7 May 1946. Investigating Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, heard 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:
| Name and surname | Antoni Herubin |
| Names of parents | Jan and Michalina |
| Date of birth | 17 January 1907, in Warsaw |
| Occupation | tailor |
| Education | 4 grades of elementary school |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Miedziana Street 18, flat 25 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was staying at my friend Józef Krzyszkowski’s at Mirowska Street 1. I remained there, as it was impossible to return to my house at Miedziana Street 18. The house at Mirowska Street 1 was under fire from the first day of the uprising, and therefore all the residents were gathered in the basement. The neighborhood of the house was in the hands of insurgents, and the Germans were attacking from Wolska Street, trying to capture the Saxon Garden and Królewska Street.
On 3 August 1944 I got wounded in the head, as a shell hit the staircase of the house. Staying in the basement, we did not know how the insurgent action was progressing and we did not see when the insurgents retreated.
On the morning of 7 August I went through a torn-out passage to the basement of the house at Mirowska Street 3, and I heard a German who was standing in the courtyard of that house order the residents to go out to the courtyard. I returned to the basement of the house at number 1 and I recounted the incident to the other residents. We then decided not to leave the basement until forced to do so by the Germans.
As I heard later, the residents of the house at number 3 had been peacefully led away to some place on Elektoralna Street and nobody was murdered.
Half an hour later, at about 9.00–10.00 a.m., a few SS men stormed into our courtyard (they had skulls and crossbones on their helmets) and ordered all residents to leave the basement. When we left the basement, the SS men – very stirred up and angry – separated the men from the group of women, children and old people, and the women and old people were marched in the direction of Wolska Street. A group of 11 young men, including myself, was stopped and then marched to Hala Mirowska [the market hall] by way of Zimna and Ptasia streets. There we stood for an hour by the wall of the hall, next to some shop, and from time to time one of us was punched in the face. At the time the halls had already been burnt, but I didn’t look inside and I didn’t see what was happening there.
One of the Germans, a man from Silesia who spoke Polish, told us that we would go to tear down the barricades, and that if it had been the previous day, we would have been executed, but that day they received an order not to kill the Poles. In the meantime, we heard the sound of fighting from the direction of Graniczna, Chłodna, Krochmalna and Grzybowska streets, and a few tanks passed by us, entering the Saxon Garden. There were many Germans around the halls. Those who had escorted us were preparing for an attack, and tanks began to pass by us again. In the meantime, a man from our group – Ptaszyński, a restaurant owner – told the Germans that he had vodka and beer in his house. Together with another man from our group and the Germans, he went twice to fetch the beverages for the Germans, and then these men were separated from our group and as a result there were nine of us left.
Some time later the Germans placed us by Janasz marketplace and we stood there for 15 minutes, and then we were told to go back to the corner of Zimna Street and Żelaznej Bramy Square, to the building with the arcades. A tank arrived and shooting ensued. Due to the fact that the bullets were hitting us, we all fell to the ground. I was shot in both arms then. I cannot tell whether the tank opened fire specifically at us or whether we were hit by the bullets of the insurgents. After we had been lying on the ground for some time, an SS man approached us and shot each of us in the neck with a rozpylacz [submachine gun]. As I was lying on the side, I got shot in the left cheek. The bullet pierced it, damaged my jaw and tongue, knocked out my teeth and left through the right corner of my mouth. However, I remained conscious and I lay still, pretending to be dead. I heard other people dying around me. The following people were murdered there: Stupiński from Mirowska Street (I don’t know his first name); Zygmunt Ptaszyński, a café owner; Józef Szkopek, a shoemaker by profession, an owner of the funeral wreaths warehouse in Mirowska Street, residing at Mirowska Street 1; Modzelewski (I don’t know his first name), an office worker if I am not mistaken, residing at Mirowska Street 1; the son of the caretaker from Mirowska Street 1; a Lieutenant of the Polish Army from 1939 (I know neither his first name nor surname), he was a pre-war officer for sure but he did not take part in the uprising; a man by the name of “Janek Bolszewik” whose surname or address I do not know, and a man unknown to me who looked like a Jew.
Apart from me, Franciszek Fitol also survived the execution. He currently resides at Orla Street 3. As he told me later, he had fallen to the ground although he had not been wounded and then fled the execution site. I didn’t notice his escape, lying among the corpses and pretending to be one myself. While I was lying there, I was once again wounded with grenade shrapnel in a finger of my left hand. An hour later I saw a large group of people with various bundles approaching from the direction of the Saxon Garden, in haste and without order, in a scurry, some men with their hands up. I wanted to join that group, but I saw the SS men standing nearby. I saw how not far from me an older woman and a young girl fell, hit with bullets or shrapnel – I could not tell which.
I would like to emphasize that the shooting was still in progress.
Some time later another group of civilians came from the direction of the Saxon Garden. Then I got up and went with them along Hala Mirowska, and then fled to Krochmalna Street, while the people were fleeing to Chłodna Street. Then I got to a Polish hospital on Grzybowska Street, and then on Mariańska Street where I stayed until I was fully recovered.
The report was read out.