HENRYK ŁAGUNA

Warsaw, 4 November 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Henryk Łaguna
Date and place of birth 13 January 1890, Przasnysz
Parents’ names Antoni and Michalina, née Zamojska
Father’s occupation teacher
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education university
Occupation chemist
Place of residence Warsaw, Górnośląska Street 22, flat 77
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Górnośląska Street 22. I remained there until 5 August 1944.

Around 3 August, the Germans set fire to the Ujazdowski Hospital, alleging that shots had been fired in their direction from the “invalids” room. I observed the evacuation of the hospital from the windows of my flat.

On 5 August the Germans – SS-men garrisoned in the parliamentary building – barged into our house. They ordered all the residents to gather in the courtyard. There they separated the men from the women. The women were led somewhere in the direction of Czerniaków, while all the men were taken to the parliamentary building.

Initially, for three hours or so, we were kept in a small room. However, I do not now remember what purpose it served. Next, all of the elderly men and a few of the younger ones, amongst them my son, Henryk Laguna, were led into the passage connecting the building with the parliamentary hotel. The young men remained in their former place of detention. There were a hundred or so of us gathered there. The conditions were difficult. We had to lie on wire nets taken from beds, two per net. Sometimes the Germans would take the older men to perform work on the parliamentary premises. The younger men were forced to work daily. Throughout the two weeks that I spent in the parliamentary building, I never witnessed nor heard of any executions being carried out there.

Around 19 August I, my son and a group of other men were driven to the transit camp in Pruszków.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.