Warsaw, 15 March 1946. Investigating Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Walenty Miler |
| Parents’ names | Henryk and Antonina, née Krajewska |
| Date of birth | 12 February 1878, Kalisz |
| Occupation | President of the Management Board of Bank Ogrodniczy [Horticultural Bank] |
| Education | Riga Technical University |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Polna Street 44 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
The Home Army members planned to capture the Gestapo headquarters in aleja Szucha in order to recover prisoners at noon on 6 May 1944. The four or five Home Army members, wearing the clothes of Gestapo men, were recognized and had to flee in a car in the direction of Siekierki, where they were all shot.
At about 5.00 p.m. on the same day, the Home Army soldiers planned also to take materials and uniforms from the German warehouses situated at Litewska Street. When they were loading the materials onto a car, the fake Germans were also recognized and had to flee. They shot back in a military manner, kneeling down. They ran in the direction of Oleandrów Street, and then along Polna Street and Pole Mokotowskie. They were wearing light-colored gabardine coats. They hid in some block of flats in the vicinity of aleja Niepodległości 212, 214 or 216.
I recounted the above on the basis of what I heard the day after an event in which I took part myself. On that day (6 May 1944) at 3.00 p.m., as I was invited to a bridge party at Zdzisław Czechowski’s, Director of BGK [National Economy Bank]. I arrived at his ground-floor flat at aleja Niepodległości 216, together with Mikielecki, former minister, Director of Bank Dyskontowy [Discount Bank] and President of the Bank Association; Hajnrych, Director of Bank Towarzystw Spółdzielczych [Bank of Co-operative Societies] and vice-President of the Bank Association; and Szymerski, former banker and recently a farmer in Grójec county. At 7.30 p.m., when we resumed the game after dinner, we heard single rifle shots, and then heavy machine-gun fire. Looking out of the window, we saw soldiers running in various directions with cocked guns in hand. The shooting was incessant, and then one of us noticed a man lying on the pavement in a pool of blood. Shortly after the alarm bells were sounded, a dozen or so Gestapo men and “Ukrainians” stormed into the flat, yelling and ordering us to raise our arms and stay put. A Gestapo man who was probably the most senior in rank checked our identity papers, and at the same time the others searched us. They searched the entire flat and left, but returned after 15 minutes. We were ordered to raise our arms and go out to the street. When we were crossing the garden, we saw a dozen or so people, mostly women, lying face down by the gate. We were ordered to lie down next to them. It all happened in the vicinity of the above-mentioned blocks of flats at aleja Niepodległości. Two or three minutes later, the men were ordered to get up with their arms raised and go along the pavement in the direction of Wawelska Street. On our way forward, we had to pass by two corpses of men lying on the pavement, and machine guns on special stands were cocked and pointed at us from the direction of Wawelska Street. The cannonade continued, although its intensity decreased. At one point, before we reached Wawelska Street, we were ordered to lie face down to the ground, and then we heard orders given in German and Russian, orders which pierced our minds like a thunderclap: “a shot to the head.” A unit of “Ukrainians” marched behind us along the pavement on which we were lying, stopped at one point and, having loaded and cocked their rifles, waited for a renewed command to shoot.
This comedy act of execution and playing on our nerves was repeated several times, and the whole story of lying and waiting for the execution lasted for about 45 minutes, and then we had our identity papers checked once again and we were released home; this was at 9.00 p.m. As I heard from eyewitnesses, there were a dozen or so corpses in the morgue at Oczki Street on the following day, probably brought from the vicinity of aleja Niepodległości.
Rumor had it that about 40 people died in the vicinity of aleja Niepodległości on 6 May 1944. As far as I know, and I heard it from the residents of the blocks of flats at aleja Niepodległości, all men who on that day found themselves by chance in the said blocks and were not registered at the address were executed.
The account of this incident was largely corroborated by an acquaintance of mine, Rościszewski (currently residing in the West; I don’t know his address), then one of my neighbors at Śliska Street (I lived at no. 6, flat 8), who worked at his allotment in Pole Mokotowskie at the time of the events. As he feared that he might get shot, he lay near his allotment for a long period of time. This witness said that the German soldiers or Gestapo men dispersed over the area and were shooting at the people lying in the field as if they were hares. A few allotment gardeners were killed that way.
As far as I know, the nephew of General Bartkowski (but whose surname I don’t know) was killed that day in aleja Niepodległości, as was the caretaker of the house at Filtrowa Street (whose surname I don’t recall). I submit to the case files my memoir of the events of 6 May 1944 which I wrote immediately following the events and recreated after it was burned during the Uprising.
The report was read out.
In addition to what I have testified above and what was read out to me, I would like to explain that I base my assumption that all unregistered residents were executed on the fact that the four of us were reprieved by the Gestapo men as holders of identity cards of great importance, upon which the Gestapo men commented before releasing us home.
The report was read out.