Warsaw, 25 May 1948. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisław Turek |
| Date of birth | 18 August 1906 in Zaborówek village, Grójec county |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Nationality and state affiliation | Polish |
| Marital status | married |
| Place of residence | Warsaw […] |
| Education | seven grades of elementary school |
| Occupation | tradesman |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at the Janasz Market [Bazar Janasza] near the Mirów Halls [Hale Mirowskie], where I remained in hiding with others in a safety shelter until 8 August 1944.
On 8 August 1944 (I don’t remember the exact date), our area was taken over by German troops, whose division I am unable to specify; I only remember that there were also “Ukrainians” among them. We were led in the direction of the halls and halted in a square between the two hall buildings, near the icehouse, where a considerable group of civilians had already been herded. A segregation took place there, women and children were separated and taken to the adjacent area, to Charles Borromeo church on Chłodna Street, and then to the transit camp in Pruszków. A group of over one hundred men were ordered to take their clothes off from the waist up and demolish barricades nearby.
I then saw an SS officer (the Germans addressed him as Herr Leutnant) shoot five men from our group, who in his opinion had been working too slowly.
I don’t know their names.
We were ordered to take the corpses to the shops burning in Mirowska Street and near the halls. On the same day, in the afternoon, we were herded to the front of St Adalbert church. A few hundred men were standing there. From that group and from our group SD-men selected around one hundred men, who, in two even groups, were accommodated in the building in Sokołowska Street, opposite the vicarage. I was quartered on the third floor, Zenon Piasecki (presently residing at Próżna Street 14, flat 2, in Warsaw), who worked in the other group, was there with me.
From the second day of our stay, that is presumably from 9 August 1944, they began to employ us at burning corpses.
The first burning took place behind the flyover on both sides of Górczewska Street: on one side, on a lot near some burnt-down factory, on the other side, in the yard of a house.
I don’t remember whether this house was on Zagłoby Street.
Our group split into two parts and was burning corpses on both sides of Górczewska Street. I was in the part of the group that was working in the yard of the house. We were arranging the corpses in a pile. I then saw that many male corpses were dressed in white aprons.
We gathered around three hundred corpses in the yard. Near the burnt-down factory on the opposite side of Górczewska Street, the pile was twice as big. We brought mainly male corpses to the yards, but some corpses of women and children were there as well.
I didn’t work in the factory grounds myself, however, on my way to get wood, I saw the pile and I saw female corpses there as well.
The corpse-burning operation continued for two or three days. In the first days we brought the corpses to the yard and the factory grounds; this took us two days. Then we did the burning.
I don’t remember the date, [when] for one day we burnt corpses scattered around in the area of the small houses and gardens stretching from St Adalbert church up to Płocka Street, between Wolska and Górczewska Street.
I am unable to specify the number of corpses we collected.
On the same day in the afternoon, we went to the grounds of the “Ursus” factory in Wolska Street. I am unable to specify how many corpses were there in total, since a part of our group had already been burning corpses in this place before we were. Yet, there must have been very many of them, judging by the amount of ash.
Having arrived, I still saw a considerable number of corpses by the factory hall from the side of Wolska Street and Skierniewicka Street, and a few corpses in the hall. I noticed that theground of the yard by the hall, from the side of Skierniewicka Street, was entirely soaked with blood.
Documents were scattered all over the yard. The SD-men escorting us ordered us to collect them and throw them onto the fire. On that day the corpses were burnt. On the following day we were brought there with a few handcarts, whereupon we were ordered to load the ashes and take them to the lot on the other side of Wolska Street, where we dumped the ashes in a potato field. Thus the traces of the pyre were obliterated. Loads of fat, which the corpses had excreted, were removed, and the place was covered with sand.
On the following day, after this work had been done, I saw that a guard was standing in front of the factory gate.
I don’t know whether the Germans made use of the factory facilities.
On the following day (I don’t remember the date) I was burning corpses in the gardens, but I had a chance to peek into Franaszek’s factory grounds from Wolska Street, where, in themain yard, I saw a very large number of corpses.
I am unable to state [their] number, since another group was bringing the corpses there, andwe were instantly taken somewhere else.
On the following day we went to St Lazarus Hospital, where a different group was carrying corpses out. From the middle pavilion we brought out a few dozen male and female corpses and arranged them into a pile, which was located in the garden. The other group was clearing corpses from the buildings between Wolska, Karolkowa and Leszno Streets. I saw the pile; there could have been around one hundred, maybe even more corpses on it, mostly hospital patients, but I also saw the corpses of hospital staff (in white aprons) and insurgents (with bands on their arms).
A day later we burnt around one hundred corpses of men and a few of women in the yard and in the flats at Wolska Street 8.
After that, for the following few days (I don’t remember the date) we worked in the area of Hale Mirowskie. In the vegetable market we burnt a few dozen corpses, mostly men collected from that area, scattered individually and in the market halls themselves. In the first hall (from the side of Solna Street) we burnt around one hundred male corpses collected from the hall, scattered individually or in small groups; [we burnt them] in a bomb crater which already contained a considerable number of charred corpses.
My colleagues collected corpses from the basements of the hall; I did not go down there myself.
That was my last burning. During the last week of August and more or less the first week of September I worked at demolishing barricades in the area of Towarowa Street [and] in the area of the opposite streets: Grzybowska, Krochmalna, Prosta, Sienna.
As a result of the fighting in that area, our group was suffering casualties. Every day we lost a few of our workers. The escort shot two men from our group.
I know, however, that regardless of this work some of our groups were still burning corpses. During the second and third week of September (as far as I remember), I worked in the kitchen of the Verbrennugskommando in Sokołowska Street. Apart from me there were five, [perhaps] seven Poles in this unit (I don’t remember their names). The wake-up call in our quarters was at 5 in the morning, at 6 we and our escort, composed of SD- men, had an assembly. The commander of our group was an SD officer, who the escort addressed as Herr Leutnant. Through an interpreter (I don’t know his name, but he was a Pole) the Leutnant read out to us in which locations a given group was supposed to work, that is to burn corpses, on a given day.
Almost every day some officer came to our assemblies (I am unable to say anything else about him), who – as I observed – gave orders to “our Leutnant ”.
More details concerning our work and escort can be provided by the abovementioned Zenon Piasecki.
I managed to escape around 20 September.
At that the report was concluded and read out.