29 January 1946, Warsaw. Acting as investigative judge, Halina Wereńko, appointed to sit on the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. After being advised of the criminal liability for making false statements and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jan Konarski |
| Date and place of birth | 15 June 1905 in Warsaw |
| Parents’ names | Ludwik and Maria, née Madejska |
| Occupation | turner |
| Education | elementary school, three courses of craft school |
| Place of residence | aleje 3 Maja 2, flat 15 |
| Religious affiliation | Catholic |
| Criminal record | None |
During the Uprising I lived in Warsaw at Wolska Street 11. On the other side of the house there was an exit into Krochmalna Street 88. We usually walked through Wolska Street, but during the Uprising all the passages were open. In the first days of the Uprising our neighborhood was controlled by the insurgents, and the Germans could only break through with their tanks.
On 5 August 1944 panic spread across the area as a fire broke out in the Franaszek factory, forcing some inhabitants to flee. I was under the impression that the insurgents had withdrawn from our neighborhood. In the evening of 5 August 1944 I stayed in the basement with my sister, sister-in-law, and my brother-in-law Wiśniewski, the Dudas, the Zawadzkis, and two other men and a few women. It was already dark and I was asleep when the noise of shooting could be heard. We smelled smoke. Someone shouted – fire! – and we all came out into the courtyard. I didn’t notice if there were other inhabitants apart from us in the courtyard. But there were a dozen or so SS men with sub-machine guns. They separated the men from the women in Krochmalna Street. The women were told to go in the direction of Karolkowa Street, while the men were stopped by four SS men at Krochmalna Street 90 and pushed into the gateway of the house at this address.
(The witness drew up a rough sketch of the house at Krochmalna 88 where he lived and the neighboring house at Krochmalna 90 where the execution took place.)
In the courtyard of the house at Krochmalna Street 90 the SS men told us to stand by the fence (marked in the sketch with the letter d). The three of them stood opposite us (the spot marked in the sketch with the letter e). The house deep in the courtyard (marked on the drawing with the letter f) was in flames. The SS men began to fire at us from sub-machine guns. After the first shot I fell flat on my face, although I wasn’t wounded. My brother-in-law Wiśniewski fell on top of me. After a while the shooting died down. Steps and single shots could be heard. I think that the SS men were finishing off the wounded. It was completely dark, but I don’t know what time it was.
When everything fell silent, my brother-in-law Wiśniewski, who was lying on me, moved. Then he jumped to his feet and ran into the basement of the burning house (marked on the sketch with the letter g). Then my brother, Wacław Konarski, spoke and we both also ran into the basement of the burning house, where we were later joined by Bogdan Duda. Thus the four of us survived the execution.
My brother-in-law, Jan Wiśniewski, now lives in Gdańsk, on Lelewela Street.
Among the executed were Zawadzki and two other inhabitants of our house whose names I don’t remember. I want to point out that I don’t know what happened to the house residents gathered in the basement other than the group about which I have testified.
[diagrammatic sketch of the execution site of seven Poles which took place on 5 August 1944, drawn up by the witness, Jan Konarski, during the interview.]