HENRYK WINIAREK

Warsaw, 15 October 1949. Irena Konieczna (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 Winiarek
Date and place of birth 26 July 1906 in Warsaw
Parents’ names Franciszek and Rozalia, née Kucharczyk
Father’s occupation locksmith
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary vocational school
Occupation office worker at the city governor’s office
Place of residence Warsaw, Drewniana Street 8, flat 2
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the school building at Drewniana Street 8. Already on the second day of the Uprising a temporary hospital was set up in this house for all the wounded from the nearby streets; it was administered by Dr. Staszewski, who currently resides – as I heard – somewhere on the Polish Coast. By 6 September 1944 (I remember that it was a Tuesday) the hospital had treated a great number of wounded people. First and foremost, many of the wounded arrived following the surrender of the Old Town.

On 5 September, a Monday, upon hearing that the Germans were approaching, many of the lightly wounded left in the direction of Śródmieście. On the next day at around 6.00 p.m. a German entered the shelter in which the residents of our house had gathered, and shouted: – Raus! The wounded, some 50 people, were lying in two of the shelter’s rooms. The healthy people, numbering approximately 200, were gathered in a single room opposite the staircase. The healthy people walked out into the school sports field. However, 10 or so of the healthy people remained with the wounded. The Germans kept some of the men to remove barricades from the area, while the remaining population – previously robbed by the “Ukrainians” on the sports field – was led along Browarna Street to Karowa Street.

People taken from all the nearby streets were gathered in the square at Browarna Street. Since the insurgents started shooting at the Germans who were leading the civilians, the Germans gathered the people in the square next to the gable wall of one of the houses and aimed their rifles at them. Soon the shooting died down. We therefore moved on, arranged in threes, along Bednarska, Trębacka, Wierzbowa, Senatorska, Elektoralna, Chłodna and Wolska streets to St. Stanislaus’ Church. At the corner of Wolska and Młynarska streets the “Ukrainians” started dragging young girls out of the column; they were raped. Some of them returned to us the next morning.

On the next day, the women were transported to Pruszków from the Western Railway Station. The men were detained for a longer period.

I do not know what happened with them, for I was taken with the women to Pruszków.

When I returned to Warsaw on 8 February 1945, I learned from Strzałkowski, I do not remember his name (currently resident in Radość), whose wife, a Russian woman, Elżbieta Strzałkowska, had set up a hospital in the school at Drewniana Street, that on 27 September 1944 the Germans killed all of the wounded in the hospital and four of the healthy people; 22 persons in total, setting fire to their bodies on the spot. The wounded were lying on pallets, and thus the terracotta floor of the shelter carries burn marks to this day.

Apart from Mr. Strzałkowski, this crime was witnessed by Dr. Staszewski, Mrs. Kamińska (whose address I do not know), and a little girl, Lilka Piątek (currently resident in a large house at Bartosiewicza Street).

We buried the bodies of the murdered victims towards the end of February or perhaps at the beginning of March 1945 in the square at Drewniana Street 7. The director of the school, Stanisław Sawicki, teachers Faustyn Frysz and Wacław Parczewski, Józef Stalewski – the school caretaker, and myself were all present during the burial of the victims of the execution conducted on 27 September 1944.

As regards other German crimes committed during the Uprising, I have heard about a crime perpetrated on 27 August 1944 at Falęcka Street 18. A Mr. Jastrzębski (currently resident somewhere in the vicinity of Madalińskiego Street), aged around 50, told me that he had talked with a boy who had escaped from Falęcka Street 18 on the very day of the crime. He recounted that the “Ukrainians” who were garrisoned in the building of the former Handicrafts School at Kazimierzowska Street, corner of Narbutta Street, threw grenades onto the stairs leading to the basements in which only the elderly residents of the house had gathered, for the younger men and women had already ran away. The stairs caved in. The “Ukrainians” then set fire to the house. Some 20 people were burned alive in the building. Amongst the victims was my mother, Rozalia Winiarek, Bronisław Krajewski, the spouses Obstawca, and Mrs. Jastrzębska, the mother of the above mentioned.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.