Warsaw, 21 May 1948. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, they witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Michał Raszczyk |
| Date of birth | 12 September 1902, in Warsaw |
| Names of parents | Adam and Marianna née Wojciechowska |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| State and national affiliation | Polish |
| Education | three years of secondary school [gimnazjum] |
| Occupation | bricklayer foreman’s assistant |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Podchorążych Street 4 |
The outbreak of the Uprising found me in my flat at Nowosielska Street 2 in Warsaw. On 1 August, the insurgents attacked a pump station at Czerniakowska Street 224 from the Siekierki side. My son, Tadeusz (born in 1924) was killed in that operation. The attack was not successful and on 2 August, the insurgents retreated from Czerniaków, through Siekierki to Sadyba. I don’t know which insurgent unit conducted the operation in our area.
In the following weeks, the insurgents were behind Łazienkowska Street and Przemysłowa Street on one side, and in the Sadyba area on the other side. German units occupied the area of Siekierki and Czerniaków. They were grouped in Łazienki, at the pump station, and went through Siekierki. I do not know what units they were.
On 23 August, SA units (in yellow uniforms with the SA badge on their arms) blocked Czerniakowska Street and the neighboring streets. At around 10:00 I escaped with my two sons and wife to a house at Gościniec Street 49. At around 1:00 p.m., German SA-men arrived there; the men were taken with me to the school at Gościniec Street 53 and led out in a group of over 100 people. My son, Mieczysław Michał (born in 1925), my wife Zofia, with the women and our son Edward (born in 1932) were taken in the evening to Warsaw West station and sent via the transit camp in Pruszków to the concentration camp in Stutthof.
Our group, near the pump station on Czerniakowska Street, was taken to the courtyard of aleja Szucha 25. There, the SD took over. Men from Siekierki were told to stand separately from those from the city. At that moment, an SS-man came in and demanded bricklayers. Over a dozen stepped forward, the SD-man chose me at random, took my documents and led me to the former Main Inspectorate of the Armed Forces at aleja Szucha 12/14.
I don’t know what happened to the other men. I only know that part of the group was later found, they had been deported to Germany, another part disappeared without a trace. My son Mieczysław was brought in in the next group from Siekierki and also went missing. I was taken by the SD-man to the second wing of the Main Inspectorate of the Armed Forces [Główna Inspekcja Sił Zbrojnych – GISZ], counting from the park. I worked in that building and in the courtyard with Jan Madejak, a bricklayer employed in the GISZ since 19 August, when he was brought in with the civilians from Czerniakowska Street. We slept in a basement on the corner of the building facing the courtyard that bordered the wing by the park, together with the butcher Józef Świderski.
Upon my arrival, I saw that the wing of the GISZ next to the park was ruined on top, only the walls were still standing, there was no roof. I only saw that building from the yard. I was never in the park. The entrance to the building was in the middle of the yard over a type of wooden gangway propped up against a window on the elevated ground floor.
On 23 August, I was with Madejak in the basement where we were to spend the night. The Germans had taken Świderski for work. Around 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., when it was already dusky, I saw through the window overlooking the yard that SD-men were leading a group of around 30 civilian men of different ages through the yard in the direction of the entrance over the boards propped up against the elevated ground floor window. Next, [more] groups were brought in, a total of around 100 men of different ages. At a certain moment, the utility director, Schweizer, came to the basement and covered up the window. After a while, I heard screams, howls, laughter, and at the same time the order “Undress” in Polish – cries for mercy, volleys from hand machine guns. Then, the order: “Get up,” “Get dressed,” and again “Undress, lie down,” volleys. This repeated a couple of times. There was a break and the shots sounded again. The screams went on until late at night. I didn’t see the moment they were led into the ruined building over the boards.
The next day, on 24 August, Madejak and I started renovating the basement where we slept and the one next to it. At 7:00 in the morning, through the window overlooking the yard, I saw SD-men leading a group of civilian men. They ordered the men to undress in the middle of the yard and told those who had undressed to go one by one over the boards and through the ground floor window into the ruined building. After the group entered the building, I heard a volley from hand machine guns. After the volley none of the undressed men came out. Two SD-men came out and soon a new group of civilian men without clothes walked in, the SD- men behind them. A whole pile of clothes, hats and shoes was lying by the wall of the ruined building, behind the boards propped up against the window, on the aleja Szucha side.
I cannot say exactly how many men were executed then. Groups of around 30 men were brought in, I don’t know exactly how many such groups were brought in, I myself took note of three or four. I didn’t recognize any of them.
The execution went on until 11:00 a.m. The men undressed, then went down into the ruined building with the two SD-men armed with hand machine guns behind them. I don’t know their names, but I could recognize both. I supposed – and other workers at the GISZ also said so – that those two SD-men always conducted the murders.
Later, in Sochaczew, a Volksdeutsch told me that one of them was German. He was a tall man, around 2 meters, well-built, with a red face, dark blond hair, in his thirties. I don’t know the nationality of the other one, he was 175 cm tall, dark blond hair, red face, in his thirties.
Those SD-men were assisted by a group of around 15 prisoners from the camp on Litewska Street, who were already there before the uprising. They were dressed in different types of attire. At that time, the group was kept at aleja Szucha 25, in cells, in so-called “trams.” I didn’t know the names of the prisoners, I only know they were Polish.
On 24 August, in the evening, while in the basement where we slept, like the previous evening I heard in the yard screams and orders: “undress,” “lie down,” and several volleys. I didn’t look through the window myself, but Świderski saw through a crack that, like the previous evening, civilian men were brought in and led into the ruined GISZ building, where – as we supposed – they were executed. The following day, on 25 August, I saw SD-men walking in over the boards propped up against the ground floor window of the ruined building, the same as had led the groups of men to be executed in the previous days, accompanied by a group of prisoners from the Litewska Street camp, who had been kept in a “tram” cell at aleja Szucha 25. The prisoners were hurrying, carrying wood and straw over the boards, and later I saw smoke rising from the inside of the ruined building. One could also feel the characteristic smell of burned corpses. I saw the smoke for a couple of days (three or four) and during that time I didn’t see any groups of civilians brought in.
After four or five days, I don’t remember the date, in the morning, I saw through the window of the basement where we slept that the SD-men had brought in a group of 30-40 civilian men into the middle of the yard by the ruined GISZ building. Next to the boards propped up against the window they were told to undress and were led, undressed, into the building. The same SD-men I had already seen on 23 and 24 August, and of whom people said that they committed the murders, led the men in one by one. Then I heard a series of shots.
I didn’t take note of how many groups were led in, in any case there were a couple of them. The shooting went on for an hour. By that point I had gone to the first floor to work and could not constantly look out into the courtyard. I only saw that the prisoners from the “tram” had moved the clothes from beside the wall of the ruined building onto two platforms. Afterwards, I saw smoke and smelled burning. I realized that they were burning the corpses.
After some time, I don’t remember the date, but around 15 September, in the evening, I again saw an execution of men through the basement window. This time, the undressed men were being led into the ruined building peacefully.
I cannot estimate how many men were executed. I don’t know where they were brought in from.
Apart from the groups I saw brought in to be executed there could also have been others. I may not have noticed them while working. From among the Germans in the GISZ grounds I remember Schweizer – the utility director who oversaw our work; his superior, Bindernagiel (his rank corresponding to that of our [Polish] sergeant major), the German Krondschmidt (his rank corresponding to that of our platoon commander), who was a building foreman in Sochaczew.
I don’t remember the date, but in September, 4 or 5 days [sic], when the penultimate and a bigger group of SD-men was leaving Warsaw, Schweizer took me and Madejek to the ruined GISZ building. We entered through a building on the Aleje Ujazdowskie side. I saw at that point that the entire wing of the GISZ adjoining the park was ruined, it didn’t have a roof or inside walls. In the middle of the building, I saw iron bars placed at a height of around 1.20 m, placed – as I now know – over an opening made in the floor to the central heating passages. The bars formed a grill, about a man’s height in length. I didn’t take note of what the bars where propped up on. At the back (towards Aleje Ujazdowskie), barrels with tar were standing by the wall. There was wood was on the bars and straw under the fireplace. We took the barrels full of tar from the building.
On the day of the departure of a bigger – the final – group of SD-men from Warsaw in September 1944, I don’t remember the date, in the morning, around 7:00 a.m., I saw SD- men take into the ruined building the group of prisoners from the Litewska Street camp, quartered in a “tram” cell at aleje Szucha 25, the same who had been at the disposal of the SD-men who had committed the murders. There were around 15 prisoners, none of them came out, and I never met any of them later. Apart from the prisoners, four more groups of men employed by the SD-men were brought in. I knew many of them by sight.
In late September 1944, Krondszmidt took me and Madejak by car to the village of Kompina, between Sochaczew and Łowicz. There, the same SD-men employed us.
During all the time when working for the Germans, Madejak, Świderski and I were registered as prisoners of the Litewska Street camp, although we never lived there. In January 1945, I escaped.
At that the report was concluded and read out.