KAZIMIERZ CYGANIAK

Warsaw, 19 January 1946. Judge Antoni Krzętowski, delegated to the Warsaw Division of the Main 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 and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore in the witness, who then testified as follows:


Name and surname Kazimierz Cyganiak
Names of parents Michał and Katarzyna née Pozdak
Place of residence Warsaw, Bagatela Street 10, flat 16
Occupation official with the Board of Education
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

During the Warsaw Uprising, I lived at Bagatela Street 10. I was in that house from the very beginning of the uprising until 18 August. When the uprising broke out, the gate of our building was closed, but was soon destroyed with grenades, apparently by the Vlasovtsy. Until 5 August the Vlasovtsy operated in our area, but Germans also showed up in our yard.

From 5 August, the Ukrainians started to prowl around our area and looting started. The residents of our house began to be taken in batches to the Gestapo HQ at aleja Szucha 25. For 18 days I stayed with my wife in our flat on the ground floor. From 5 to 7, maybe 8 August we hid in a pantry under the window during daytime, only staying in the flat at night. From 7 or 8 August we stopped hiding in the pantry because it was very inconvenient. From that time on we hid in the bedroom, under the bed.

On 18 August, unexpectedly, two Gestapo men came to our flat and we were taken to the Gestapo HQ on aleja Szucha, where we were told to go to Pruszków. With this purpose, we were taken to Rakowiecka Street and then set free.

During the entire time of our stay on Bagatela Street we were troubled by human cries, sounds of single gunshots, volleys, machine guns and grenade explosions, with a characteristic hissing before they landed. Apart from that, from 1 August we could smell the distinctive stench of burned bodies coming to us from the park, possibly from the area of the Main Inspectorate of the Armed Forces [GISZ].

On 1 August, an insurgent jumped into my flat, looking for shelter and asking if I could shelter him in the attic, so I went up there and at that point looked out the window onto the park area.

(A situation plan, attached to the inspection report from 18 October 1945, was shown to the witness. The witness testifies that he lived in the house marked 10 on the plan and that he looked through an attic window located on the wall of the house adjacent to the garages and thus also to the park. The witness continues testifying.)

Looking through the window I could see a heap of corpses, there were certainly a few hundred. They rose up to a height of a few meters and were placed before the EC wall of the GISZ building. The corpses were dressed. I did not see anything more at that time. I looked through the window for a short time because, just afterwards, shots sounded and I was afraid that maybe they were shooting at us.

On the night from 12 to 13 August, possibly one day earlier, we heard terrifying cries of individual people and the sound of single shots and volleys coming from the park. At the same time, we smelled the characteristic stench of burned bodies. All this was accompanied by music played on a piano and opera arias sung by a female voice. The singing was of high artistic quality, she surely must have been an artist. Judging from the conversations which reached us during the day from the house at aleja Szucha 4, carried on loudly by the maids and concierge, the opera performance had been organized because of the departure of the Gestapo and the handing over of the area to the Wehrmacht.

Halina Piotrowska (residing in Hotel Polonia, room 519) had constant access to the attic of our house. She works in the City Hotel Management Board. I know that she made many observations of the scenes taking place in the park. She reported to us on everything that was happening there.