On 21 May 1949, in Gdańsk, Investigating Judge A. Zachariasiewicz, as a representative of the District 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. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surnames | Marian Brzeziński |
| Age | 35 |
| Names of parents | Władysław and Władysława |
| Occupation | hairdresser |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Gdańsk-Oliwa, Mściwoja Street 4, flat 2 |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to parties | none |
The Warsaw Uprising caught me in my flat at Nowosielska Street 14 (corner of Czerniakowska). Insurgent activity was limited in this area to a several-hour assault on the pre-war barracks of the 1st Division of the Horse Artillery [DAK] at the junction of Czerniakowska and 29 Listopada streets, which was repulsed by the Germans.
The first day of the Uprising passed quite calmly for us living there. Only on the second day did a unit of German infantry approach the house at Nowosielska Street 22, whence they led the residents out and set the building on fire.
In addition, around the end of the first week of the Uprising, I saw several times from the window of my flat how German infantry soldiers opened the entrances to a sewer on Czerniakowska Street, opposite the German bunker, and threw in – as I understand – gas grenades. After the grenades were thrown in, a cloud resembling a transparent mist emerged and hovered over the manhole. I was further convinced that gas grenades had been thrown in because of the fact that the soldiers blocked their noses and mouths with their hands and jumped away from the open sewer.
On many occasions I saw Poles escaping to our district through the sewers, probably from Śródmieście, coming out of the sewer entrance on Czerniakowska Street, only to be shot at by the Germans from a bunker built of logs at the end of Nowosielecka Street at the turn into a side-street, whose name I forget, attached to the DAK barracks.
I also saw the evacuation of Ujazdowski Hospital, which could have been on 10 August. I saw the doctors, medical personnel in white apparel and the sick exiting the hospital or rather walking down Czerniakowska Street from the direction of Łazienkowska Street; those in better condition carried those gravely ill on stretchers, bed sheets and mattresses. Women ran out to this procession with food and water and those walking said that the Germans had ordered them to leave the hospital and take the route to Wilanów. I did not see any Germans in uniform among them.
I heard from Tadeusz Olszewski, who perished several days after at the Gestapo HQ at aleja Szucha, 25, that on 2 August he had seen German infantry leading a group of around forty men, hands clasped behind their necks, to the DAK barracks. He recognized my friend, Tadeusz Rostkowski, in that group. From that moment, all trace of him was lost.
In addition, I heard from an elderly woman, whose name I do not remember, from Nowosielska Street 14 (she could have been around 50), who had been employed in the DAK barracks before and during the Uprising peeling potatoes for the army, that that group was executed in the barracks area at the orders of a commander in the rank of Hauptmann, whose name she could not provide. This woman is alive and probably lives in Warsaw. Her surname can be provided by: Zofia Żelichowska (residing in Sopot, Wybickiego Street 5), or by the residents of the house at Nowosielecka Street 14 in Warsaw, which still stands.
On 19 August, in the morning, German infantry started evacuating the residents of Nowosielska and Czerniakowska streets. The soldiers acted quite gently towards the people. They called upon us to come down and assured us that we would be led west of Warsaw and relocated in the surrounding villages. As we walked, escorted by the soldiers, we ran into Gestapo men on Agrykola Street, who took us over from the army and took us to the Gestapo HQ at aleja Szucha 25. We were divided into two groups in front of the building, the first consisting of women, children, and elderly men, and the second of men in the prime of age. The women were marched off in the direction of Puławska Street to Rakowiecka Street, and we were taken to the Gestapo HQ, into the yard, where we were placed in two rows facing the wall. A number of us were called out and asked what we knew about the uprising. Each answered in the same way, that he knew nothing. Afterwards, they called out specialists in some areas, e.g. hairdressers, carpenters, joiners, bricklayers and stonemasons. In addition, around a dozen men were called out (roughly five – six) and told to follow in the same direction as the women and children. We, the chosen specialists, including myself, were left in the yard (a group of ten to twelve people), and the rest, a group of over a hundred people, was taken to the grounds of the Main Inspectorate of the Armed Forces [Główny Inspektorat Sił Zbrojnych – GISZ].
I stayed at the Gestapo until 20 September, and hence I am stating that there were Gestapo men at aleja Szucha until 1 September 1944, and afterwards only a dozen remained there when the Schutzpolizei arrived in the building.
I worked in my profession for some time. On multiple occasions I heard Gestapo men brag while shaving, even before 1 September, of having taken part in the killing of “bandits – Polish insurgents –on the Sportplatz.” A Volksdeutsch from Poznań, named Szymański, whose first name I do not know, was the head of the hairdressing salon. He always encouraged us Poles to work, saying: “do your work, do your work – you’ll get hit in the hat [w czapę] anyway.” In addition, he constantly reminded us that our group was exceptionally luck: “up until 7 September everybody got hit in the hat.” The phrase “to get hit in the hat” meant “to get killed.”
I did not see any executions but only heard sounds of single shots or whole series of shots coming from the GISZ, which went on almost incessantly during my stay at the Gestapo HQ. The Vlasovtsy who came to the hairdressing salon at the Gestapo also bragged of having killed many Poles. From the group of men taken to the GISZ grounds after we, the specialists, had been picked, I saw many men walking out for labor with shovels, which went on until the end of my stay at the Gestapo. From among those men, I can mention the following:
1. Kazimierz Wendlak (residing in Warsaw, Piusa XI Street 10)
2. Ludwicki, joiner (residing in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz, Zbyszka z Bogdańca Street) 3. Bieguński, carter (before the Uprising, residing in Warsaw, Czerniakowska Street 106).
They should probably have more detailed information about the executions and mass graves of the victims. I never heard at whose orders the executions of Poles were carried out. I only gathered, from conversations between Germans and Vlasovtsy, that there was a superior in the Gestapo grounds on aleja Szucha, whom the Germans called “ Kommandant”
| and the Vlasovtsy “ Komandir | .” I don’t know if I ever saw Hahn, the commander of |
| the Sicherheitspolizei. | |
| I have testified everything. | |
| Read out. |