Warsaw, 3 September1946. The investigating judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard as a witness the person specified below. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Wacław Stanisław Juszczakiewicz |
| Date of birth | 28 October 1892 in Warsaw |
| Education | Russian elementary school |
| Occupation | bookbinder |
| Parents’ names | Kacper and Justyna née Kamińska |
| Place of residence | Ząbki, Marki commune, Kopernika Street 14 |
On 23 April 1944, Ząbki village was surrounded by gendarmerie troops from Radzymin, Rembertów and some other place, and the blue police from Zielonki, with the State Police commander, sergeant Zagrajek, and his deputy, master corporal Rosochacki.
Between 4.00 a.m. and 5.00 a.m., led by the Polish policemen who knew the surroundings, the gendarmes began to pick people from the houses in accordance with a list. The troops reached my house at 5.30 a.m., asking about my sons Witold and Zbigniew. Witold was not home, so they took Zbigniew, who was on the list, and my third son, Wacław, who did not have any identity papers (Kennkarte or Ausweis). They were taking young people who didn’t have an employment card also from other houses.
In this manner they took over 30 men and women from Ząbki; those who were on the list were taken away in one car, and those who didn’t have any identity papers in the other car, which was immediately sent to Warsaw to Skaryszewska Street.
My son Wacław was in this group, and from Skaryszewska Street he was deported to a concentration camp, I think in Dachau. He came back two months ago and now lives with me. In the other car there were people from the list: my son Zbigniew Juszczakiewicz (born 15 August 1926), who was a railway worker at Warsaw Wileńska station; Mieczysław Kamiński, an employee of the fire service in Warsaw; Wieczorek and his two young sons (I don’t know their names), the owners of a shop in Ząbki; Frydrych, whose first name and occupation I don’t know; Jan Marczak, whose occupation I don’t know; a Jew whose name I don’t know, but I know that he was taken because he had weapons and a radio in his flat in Ząbki.
All people in the village knew that those arrested were involved with the Underground State. They were all on a list that comprised over 20 names, but not all those who were on it were caught then. We all suspected afterwards that the list must have been made by Józef and Stanisław Pasińscy, the owners of a house and a shop in Ząbki.
It was commonly known in the village that Stanisław Pasiński was a Gestapo informer, so he could have submitted the names in cooperation with the blue police from Zielonki. Presently, the Pasińskis have left Zielonki and live somewhere in the West, only Stanisław Pasiński’s wife visits Zielonki sometimes. I don’t have hard evidence that Pasińscy denounced my son to the Germans as a member of the Home Army, but we all in the village believe that this was the case. Currently Pasiński is wanted by the Citizens’ Militia as a Volksdeutsch.
About the same time when my son was taken away from my house, Aleksander Melak, who was not on the list, was arrested by the gendarmes and ordered to lead them to his brother’s house (I don’t know his name), which was near the train station. The brother of Aleksander Melak was to be taken, as he was on the list. When the gendarmes appeared at his window, Melak did not let them take him but began shooting. Aleksander Melak fled the place and survived the war, he lives in Ząbki now, in Kowalski’s house. His brother was either shot or shot himself, and then the Germans set his house on fire. I don’t know whether the gendarmes carried out a search of the flat beforehand, whether they found the weapons which – as I heard – Melak had at home. When they had set his house on fire, the gendarmes arrested the father of the murdered Melak and his two brothers, tied them together with a wire, tying their hands and legs, and put them alive in the burning house. On 1 May 1945, the half-charred remains of those three men were exhumed and buried in the Ząbki cemetery.
Whether an exhumation report had been made, I do not know. I know, however, that it was a ceremonial funeral.
The entire incident with the burning of the house lasted until 6.00 a.m. At that time my son and other arrested people were being interrogated in the elementary school building. My wife, Stanisława Juszczakiewicz, and other inhabitants of Ząbki, heard the painful screams and groans of the arrested issuing from the building. Between 12.00 noon and 1.00 p.m. all the arrested were put in a car and taken away in an unknown direction, according to rumor in the direction of Jabłonna.
During an exhumation in Bukowiec on 17 August 1946, the Polish Red Cross identified the corpse of my son Zbigniew by a visiting card found in his clothes. I then received the corpse; I recognized my son by his clothes – the shreds of his railway uniform, and a small horseshoe he had always had in his pocket. I recognized his scarf and underwear, besides, he was of medium height, and although the facial features were obscure due to decomposition, I am sure that I received the remains of my son. I buried my son in the Jabłonna cemetery.
I know that my neighbor, a woman named Kamińska, recognized the corpse of her son Mieczysław Kamiński during the same exhumation.
The report was read out.