ALEKSANDER TYNICHIEWICZ

Warsaw, 23 April 1947. Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the obligation to speak the truth, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Aleksander Tynichiewicz
Parents’ names Andrzej and Anna, née Sadowska
Date of birth 17 May 1887 in Słomnik, kieleckie voivodeship
Religion Roman Catholic
Place of residence Ursus, Dreszera Street 3
Education faculty of law at Kiev University
Occupation deputy director of the State Engineering Plant in Ursus

In 1940, duly instructed by a Polish underground organization in Warsaw, I passed a sworn translator’s exam and opened a legal and accountancy office in the city. I was also a court superintendent, and this provided me with access to the Gestapo and the Ghetto. Acting as a translator for supplicants, I established contacts with a number of Gestapo officers, even entertaining some of them at home. Therefore, and insofar as my memory allows, I shall recreate the hierarchy of Department IV of the Sicherheitspolizei, the so-called Geheime Staatspolizei, as it functioned until my arrest on 6 August 1943. Thus, my information shall pertain to the year 1942, and partially to 1943.

Initially, the Kommandeur d. Sipo und SD Warschau was one Meisinger, thereafter persons unknown to me, and afterwards Müller, who was transferred to an identical post in Lublin in 1941 (I do not remember the exact date). Müller’s successor was Obersturmbannführer Hahn, while his deputy was Sturmbannführer dr Käh.

The Sipo was subdivided into five departments:

1) Verwaltung und Recht
2) Technik und Nachrichten Deust
3) SD Führer
4) Geheime Staatspolizei
5) Kripo

In Warsaw in 1942 and 1943, Department IV was headed by Kriminalrat Sturmbannführer Stamm. Department IV had a number of divisions and offices, which were marked with the letters A, B, C, D, and these in turn had subdivisions, marked with Roman and Arabic numerals.

Stamm’s chief assistant was Obersturmführer Stern, a specialist in the persecution of Polish underground organizations. Stern’s closest collaborators were Max Lorenz, Oberscharführer Heinrich Stromberg (an official of the SD), whose mother was a Pole, Hauptsturmführer Birken (he had a Ukrainian girlfriend, Lidia Użycka, resident in Warsaw at Koszykowa Street 31a). I remember the surnames of other Gestapo functionaries, but not their positions, i.e.: Untersturmführer Meisen, Obersturmführer Reszke (a specialist in combating couriers and liaison officers of the Polish underground) from Piła, who was an official of the SD, and Obersturmführer Schmidt. Amongst those Gestapo officers who took bribes – and therefore showed at least some leniency in their dealings with Poles – I would mention Ginter and Werner.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.