Warsaw, 29 March 1946. Investigative Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the oath’s significance, the Judge took the oath following which the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Aleksander Konstanty Iwanka |
| Parents’ names | Aleksander and Helena née Antoniewicz |
| Date of birth | 4 October 1904, Nitra, Hungary |
| Occupation | department chief in the Ministry of the State Treasury |
| Education | SGH Warsaw School of Economics |
| Address | Warsaw, Białostocka Street 20, flat 8 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
From 1 August 1939 I was the financial director of the Municipal Board in the Capital City of Warsaw. During the German occupation I remained in that post until 15 September 1943, that is, until I took the position of chief director in the Warsaw KKO [Municipal Savings Bank].
After Warsaw’s capitulation in 1939, a German named Otto was appointed as Reich Commissioner of Warsaw. His deputy was Dengel. Soon after the capitulation, the post of polizei verwalter was given to Leist. I heard from the Germans that before the Hitlerite revolution Leist was a minor customs official whose career was built simply on the fact that he was an SA member. Leist was of German nationality. Whether he had been to Poland before 1939, I do not know. He was coming to Warsaw as an Oberführer already. As I mentioned above, soon after Warsaw’s capitulation (I don’t recall the date), Leist took the post of polizei verwalter, who was more or less responsible for supervising the Polish police, I suppose.
Before the end of 1939, Dengel managed to dismiss Otto and took his place by the end of 1940. Leist did the same to Dengel and became Warsaw’s starost. I should point out that after dismissing Otto, Dengel – still in 1939 – proclaimed himself the city’s president. Leist took this post from Dengel, the function being described as der Beauftrage des Distrikt Chefs für die Stadt Warschau, that is, district chief’s proxy in the city of Warsaw. In practice, the job was analogous to that of a municipal starost, later the official name was changed to Stadthauptman. He remained in that post until the end of the German occupation. He left Warsaw shortly before the Uprising. After the Uprising, in 1944, Leist was expected to liquidate the sections of the Municipal Board of Warsaw. It seems to me that he didn’t come to Warsaw at that time. As the Stadthauptman, Leist lived in Blank’s Palace, in a luxurious apartment. He also had a villa in Konstancin. The Municipal Board was forced to provide for his standard of living. AGRiL bought him two horses, hunts were organized for him. Leist had a special fund within the Municipal Board’s budget, which didn’t exceed 200 thousand zlotys a year. Municipal institutions were directly ordered to provide for him. Generally speaking, he made himself a very comfortable life of the highest standard, exploiting the Municipal Board. According to observations and opinions of the Municipal Board’s workers, and also to some of the clerks in the Blank Palace, Leist was pursuing a two-faced policy, that is he took a friendly attitude towards Poles and kept proving his benevolence, and had very good relations with the General Government, including the General Governor himself.
An individual named Tkotsch – a reichsdeutsch, but of Polish origins, an upper-Silesian who opted for Germany in 1921 – had a special role at Leist’s side. He was responsible for personal affairs as the main clerk at the Stadthauptman’s office. Generally, he showed a kind attitude towards Poles, for example by issuing the ausweisses without difficulties, recruiting them for jobs, supporting Polish or German authorities’ appeals to improve employees’ living situation. At the same time, Tkotsch was secretary of an NSDAP cell in the region ruled by the Stadthauptman. According to confidential information from German sources, Tkotsch adopted the position of a Pole-eater – he was Leist’s right hand. Tkotsch was setting up a German secret service within the Municipal Board premises. I know about this because he revealed himself when the tram drivers’ delegation was intervening with him regarding their living conditions. He said then that he was being informed by his spies about who spent money on what among the delegation members. Although it didn’t have a personal impact on me, I heard that a couple of municipal clerks – including an employee of my department, Prandota Prandecki – had been sent to Treblinka camp for taking money in return for intervening in the housing office. In our opinion though, these offences were of a minor character, whereas the real bribing swindles were tied to Blank’s Palace and an individual named Braun, the main housing official in Leist’s offices. It is a fact that Prandot, arrested by Braun, was released as a result of my conversation with Braun, as I convinced him that the offense committed wasn’t proportional to the punishment of going to Treblinka. The day after I’d gone to Kraków, Prandota was arrested and deported to Treblinka. When I came back, I intervened with Leist’s deputy – Fribolin, who also upheld my statement – who, being a prosecutor by profession notabene, intervened in the matter of releasing Prandota. The camp’s authorities refused. Braun was shot in 1943, sentenced by the Polish underground organization whose mission was to fight the Germans.
For some time, there was a German doctor for the Warsaw offices named Hagen, who showed a lot of kindness to the Poles, often risking his own safety, intervening in the matter of children from the Zamość district, for example. Hagen was fired from his position – as far as I know, Leist had an unfavorable opinion of him.
When it comes to [Leist’s] associates, there were three groups in Blank’s Palace: 1) Notable Pole-eaters, with Dürrfeld in the lead, mainly operating throughout the city’s enterprises, trying to expand their scope over the whole Municipal Board; 2) [People] favorable towards Poles, like Kunze or Fribolin;
3) Leist, Tkotsch, Braun, Lang – a group that was casting about, mainly securing their personal profits.
The pro-Polish group despised Dürrfeld and kept informing us, for example, that he was a drug addict, and he was turning his colleagues against the Poles. Their attitude towards Leist’s group was critical – they considered them as career opportunists reaching out for personal profits. Dürrfeld was a decernent – a function more or less analogous to Polish ławnik [assessor]. Dürrfeld was responsible for sending the chief directors of the Tramwaje Miejskie [City Trams] – Niepokojczycki and Synek (I don’t know their first names) – and a couple of their employees to Auschwitz. He accused all of them of sabotage for no reason. There were repressive measures against the tram and other municipal enterprise employees (beating and being deported to camp by Dürrfeld). I remember that when there was a faulty turbine in the powerplant, Dürrfeld wanted to arrest all the engineers, brigadiers and workers for sabotage. Ruin, powerplant’s chief, opposed that, proving that the turbine had broken down due to its maintenance being impossible. This shows Dürrfeld’s attitude towards Poles – he saw sabotage everywhere. Dürrfeld was the Reichstag’s member and in terms of the party hierarchy, he was superior to Leist – that’s why Leist had to respect him. Apart from Dürrfeld, among other members of the anti-Pole group was Alertz – a grafter, who helped Dürrfeld to send Tram workers to Auschwitz camp.
I also need to mention that Dürrfeld filled posts in all the Polish enterprises with German directors. Bolenbach, an official responsible to him, was personally beating the Tram workers.
I don’t know what was Leist’s role was regarding the Jewish case. In my conversations with the Jewish commune president, engineer Czerniakow, Leist’s surname wasn’t mentioned. Jewish affairs in the General Government were handled by a German, Dr. Auerswald. According to Czerniakow’s opinion, Auerswald was responsible for taking bribes and robbing for the sake of his and Fischer’s profits; he owed his influences to the fact that his wife was Fischer’s lover. Auerswald was a ghetto commissioner, although mainly the SS was ruling there.
In accordance with the German’s administrative regulations in the whole General Government area, the police in Warsaw wasn’t supervised by the Stadthauptman. Whether Leist had influence in organizing the round-ups and street executions in Warsaw, I don’t know. I think he probably didn’t, although there was an opinion circulating among the German officials that as the city starost he could intervene in these matters. According to the information I obtained from a German official, there was a meeting of the German municipal authorities in the Blank Palace, with Kutschera participating. The meeting’s purpose was to discuss the administrative issues of Warsaw’s premises. Dr. Ramert, the social care official in Leist’s offices, raised objections against the SS then. As I was informed, the round-ups and executions weren’t mentioned at the meeting. Leist wasn’t present during the Warsaw Uprising. Dr. Fribolin was, and he died.
During his tenure, Leist got promoted to SA Brigadenführer. Whether he took any valuables upon his departure from Warsaw before the 1944 Uprising – I do not know, but I suppose he did, considering he left the city in advance.
I’m not in possession of any documents issued during Leist’s tenure.
Matters concerning the housing of the Germans in Warsaw and importing luxury furniture for them were handled by a specially designated German office, which acquired the necessary things mostly from the ghetto.
Leist was mostly aiming to make his duty peaceful and comfortable, that is why the true circumstances of the Municipal Board were shaped by his officials, whom he had left a lot of freedom. Due to this, efforts of the Municipal Board could yield relatively good results in one area, while very poor in another, mainly in the municipal enterprises.
When I went to Kraków in 1941 in order to finagle a pay rise for the municipal workers, Leist made it easier for me by sending a telegram. He himself never went to Kraków to intervene.
Apart from those listed by the present Municipal Board, more details on Leist’s activities might be provided by: Henryk Pawłowicz, Vice Mayor of Warsaw during the occupation; Ludwik Tangl, then chief of Municipal Control; Leon Danielewicz, chief of the gardening department at that time, presently working for SPB; Marceli Porowski, a vice director in Municipal Control, currently employed in the Ministry of Administration; Dawidowski, then the City Hall’s intendent; Ogrodzki, formerly vice chief of the housing office; Antoni Bida, spokesperson for the Municipal Board; Stanisław Wasilewski, chief of the Polish criminal police; Antoni Chociński, then vice-director of social care.
The report was read out.