Bronisław Romaniszyn, born 13 June 1889, operetta performer, currently living in Warsaw- Praga at Radzymińska Street 98, flat 1, concerning the massacre on 8 January 1945 in Przyrów near Częstochowa by Cossack units of Vlasov’s army, in German service.
On 15 September 1944, during the uprising, I was expelled by the Germans from Wilanowska Street 5. I then went through the Pruszków camp, and was later transported to Przyrów near Częstochowa, where I lived, working at the Central Welfare Council.
On 6 January 1945, two drunk Cossacks from the Russian Liberation Army came to Przyrów, demanding a cart from the village leader. One of them left, looking for some vodka, and went missing. Unable to find him, his companion alerted his unit, accusing the town residents of murdering the Cossack.
On 8 January, at 5 a.m., the whole settlement, consisting of 2,000 residents was surrounded by three detachments of Cossacks. Two or three Cossacks stormed into each house, throwing men out, stealing anything they could lay their hands on, and raping women. All the men were driven to one place in the market square, where the school was located. At the school, they established a tribunal consisting of four drunk Cossack commanders. They took doctor Borowiak, who was Chairman of the Central Welfare Council, and the town mayor Szyszka to the tribunal by force; then, they made people enter the school room in small groups. They wanted to know who was from Warsaw. The verdict of the “tribunal” was curt: “ perviy sort” [first category] or “ vtoroy sort” [second category]. Those in the first group were to die; the others were to wait.
The first group was taken downstairs into a room on the ground floor, where they were forced to strip naked and were then cruelly beaten. The local chemist’s brother, Kowalski, had his eyes struck out and his tongue cut off, and then two drunk Cossacks threw him into a wooden house that had been set on fire. The house belonged to the tailor Deska, and it was where the [missing] Cossack had allegedly been murdered on 6 January. I myself saw Kowalski’s body being carried across the market square. I was hiding out in the ruins of a house next to the market square. Kowalski was screaming out in horrible pain and he was still alive. Having been cruelly beaten, the people were taken from the school in groups of ten or twelve and driven into the burning house, into the vestibule, with the Cossacks standing around and shooting at them from machine guns. Around 60 people (men) were killed there in this fashion. Those who tried to escape from the town into the fields were shot at by Cossacks who had surrounded the town, and so all the fields were strewn with corpses.
The second category group was taken to the market square where they awaited execution. There were 250 men. Executions, plundering and raping continued until evening. Already by around midday, all the Cossacks were drunk. There was a small tank standing in the market square with a machine gun with an inserted ammunition belt, ready to carry out the execution.
In the meantime, the women – who were indoors – were being raped. There was not a single house where a robbery had not occurred or a woman had not been raped.
In the evening, at around 5 or 6 p.m., a German SS officer arrived in a car. After a conversation with the Cossack officer presiding over the tribunal, who was reportedly called Walter and spoke German well, the men – despite the Cossacks’ resistance – were taken from the market square to dig trenches in Koniecpol. They were grouped into fours with drunk Cossacks riding beside them on horses and carts loaded up with stolen possessions in huge sacks. When leaving, they warned the mayor that it was not permitted to remove the corpses of the murdered on pain of death. It was not until the following day that the Cossacks allowed the bodies to be buried when they returned to the town to requisition hay.
Throughout the execution, I was hiding out in the ruins of a house next to the market square, which saved my life.
I later saw the room at the school where the people were cruelly beaten before the execution. There was blood all over the floor. I saw the corpses of people who had been murdered or burnt. In my estimate, around 150 people were murdered or shot dead when attempting to escape. The murdered Varsovians whom I know included:
| 1. | Mgr. Strzyżewski and his wife, former owner of a pharmacy on Czerniakowska Street in Warsaw. Shot dead in their home. |
| 2. | Liedke, an employee in the Philips company in Warsaw |
| 3. | His father-in-law (I don’t know the name) |
| 4. | Engineer W.[...] from Lwow (his wife was raped by a number of RLA soldiers in front of her children) – he was killed in the street. |
There were many others whom I only knew by sight.
My landlord, Henryk Szyguła, a deportee from Silesia, who hid out in the toilet, was pulled out, beaten cruelly, shot dead and thrown into the fire.
Excruciating scenes unfolded when people identified the charred remains of the murdered victims. The corpses of the terribly tortured people were charred remains with skulls that had been shot through, broken arms and legs, horribly burnt. The town ran out of coffins, even though there were four coffin makers.
The day after the execution, in the evening, some children found German firearms planted under the bridge on the river, and people were afraid that the massacre would be repeated. Everyone dispersed into the woods and fields. The bravest hid out in the church. There were a dozen or so coffins in the church filled with the remains of those murdered.
My testimony is truthful and can be confirmed by all the residents of Przyrów, and above all by doctor Borowiak, the chairman of the Central Welfare Council, Mr. Szyszko, doctor Jasiński, Mrs Janczewska from Poznań, whose husband was also murdered, Mrs Kupkowa (her husband, a 60-year-old old man, a retiree from Warsaw, was shot dead), doctor Madej and many others.
Before signing, I confirm that I have read the report.