LEON KNAFLEWSKI

Warsaw, 22 May 1947. Judge Halina Wereńko, member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, has interviewed the person stated below as a witness, without oath.

Being advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the contents of Art. 107 and Art. 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Leon Jerzy Knaflewski
Names of parents Stanisław and Stanisława
Date of birth 5 March 1902 in village Ostrowite, powiat słupecki
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Place of residence Warsaw, Wolska Street 37, flat 34
Education second school
Occupation bookkeeper

During the Warsaw Uprising I was in the St. Stanislaus Hospital at Wolska Street 37 in Warsaw.

Germans occupied the hospital on 5 August, but there was no major loss of life. The hospital stood side by side with Franaszek’s factory at Wolska 41/45, which was set on fire by the Germans on 5 August, shortly before they occupied the hospital.

From 5 to 8 August I heard gunfire and people screaming, these sounds coming from the area of the factory. I realised then that mass executions were being carried out over there. From 6 to 8 August I also saw how the SS-men, Kalmuks and “Ukrainians” with raspberry-red piping on their collars were leading groups of men to the area of Franaszek’s factory. After a while we could hear volleys.

I heard that on 6 August the Germans carried out a huge execution of men, women and children taken from the factory shelters. On 8 August I got into Franaszek’s factory with Włodarski and with others. We were searching for food. In the main courtyard I saw a stacked pile of corpses of people killed by bullets, covered with combustible materials. The dimensions of the pile were 8-10 by 4-5 metres, it was about 2 metres high.

The corpses were burnt afterwards, as well as the bodies from the execution at the tram depot (Młynarska Street 2). It was over there – I remember it well – that I saw pyres.

All these remains, corpses of our employees (Ilimski and others) and the bodies found in the area were transferred to [...] at the St. Stanislaus Hospital in the course of the exhumation carried out by Dr Rott in April and May 1945. It was not until 1947 that they were exhumed [and moved] to the Wolski cemetery. During Dr Rott’s exhumation operation, it was, among others, Motyliński who was transferring the corpses. He resides at Kazimierza Street 7, flat [...].

At that the report was concluded and read out.