Warsaw, 9 March 1946. Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the 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 took an oath therefrom, following which the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Bronisław Tomaszewski |
| Date of birth | 9 January 1891 |
| Parents’ names | Tomasz and Florentyna, née Szczepańska |
| Occupation | shopkeeper |
| Education | 4-class vocational school |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Stanisławowska Street 75, flat 56 |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
Before the War, I was a member of the audit commission of the Association of Small Traders in Warsaw, and in 1940 I became the vice-chairman of the association.
During the German occupation I resided at Grzybowska Street 69 together with my wife, Aniela, and her mother. At the time, my daughter, Zofia Narcyza, née Tomaszewska Smardzewska (born on 3 November 1917), lived at Prosta Street 50. My son, Zbigniew Hubert Tomaszewski (born on 29 October 1920), lived together with her. Before the War, my daughter attended the School of Political Science, while my son was a student at the Higher Trade School. During the occupation my daughter – once married – took care of the household, and my son worked at the Association of Small Traders "Strength through Unity" as its secretary. All three of us – myself, my son, and my daughter – were members of a clandestine organisation, although each of us worked in a different group.
On 3 February 1943 at 22.45 two uniformed Gestapo men and one in civilian clothes arrived at my home and arrested me. When inquiring about me, they verified my personal data, which they had written down. A search conducted at the apartment did not reveal anything that could have interested them. I was taken by car to Pawiak prison.
I was detained in a cell in ward VII, in the cellar; the cell number was 225. In the cell I found my son, Zbigniew Hubert, the chairman of the Association of Traders “Strength through Unity”, Stefan Szczepaniak, an underground associate of mine, and the two Dzięgielewski brothers – Tadeusz and Henryk, one of whom worked as a technician in a factory, while the other was an office worker (I don’t remember where), both being collaborators of my son in the clandestine organisation. Currently, both Dzięgielewskis work at the Polish YMCA in Warsaw. There was also a professor of mathematics, an assistant lecturer at the Warsaw Polytechnic, one Józef Wąsik, who died in Oświęcim in 1943 and who before his arrest had cooperated with my son in the underground organisation. The Gestapo had arrested us all at the same time at our places of residence.
My son told me in detail about his arrest and that of my daughter, Zofia Narcyza Smardzewska. At 23.00 on 3 February 1943, the apartment at Prosta Street 50 had been raided by three Gestapo officers who inquired after my son and daughter, whose personal details they had written down. They ordered my son to raise his arms and stand with his face to the wall and, while he was standing thus, they searched his person. The search was fruitless and the Gestapo officers handed my son and daughter over to the men waiting in the car, after which they were taken to Pawiak prison.
A lodger, one Niewęgłowski, later told me that once my son and daughter had been driven away, he was thrown out from the apartment, and the Gestapo men continued to search it throughout the night. After a few months the Gestapo ordered Niewęgłowski to leave, and the apartment was seized, at which point the quality furniture from three rooms was taken away on trucks. My wife witnessed the loading of the items onto the vehicles.
On 4 February my son was taken for interrogation for the first time, and conveyed for this purpose to the Gestapo offices (aleja Szucha 25). He was taken before noon, and returned around 18.00.
He was severely beaten and had bluish marks and welts on his back and bottom; he was angry and nervous. He recounted how during the interrogation he had been charged with being the head of a military organisation, which he denied, and was then beaten with a rubber truncheon. When the beating stopped, he was shown documents that were stored in the apartment at Prosta Street (apparently, the secret hiding place had been found during the search). Among others, he was shown a list of Gestapo informers in Warsaw and plans for the deployment of German troops in the city, as well as of the municipal headquarters. I know that my son had drawn the plans of the municipal headquarters himself, for he and a friend had accessed the facility as labourers in the course of repair work. In spite of this, my son did not admit to the charges.
I was interrogated at aleja Szucha, along with all of those mentioned above who had been arrested along with us at the same time, regarding the same factual circumstances. I was taken to aleja Szucha four times (during my three and a half month period of imprisonment). I was interrogated regarding the persons who lived at my apartment and my membership in an organisation of which my son was head. I admitted to nothing. None of the members of our group admitted anything, and none of us turned anybody in.
At this time in Warsaw a few Gestapo men were killed at Długa Street. In revenge, 72 men (including my son) were selected from Pawiak and on 12 February 1943 taken to the Chojnowski Forest near Piaseczno, where they were executed by firing squad in the township of Stefanów. The victims of the execution were buried in a common grave. Already on 9 May 1945 my wife, acting on her own initiative, dug up the grave and found our son’s body, which was then buried in Powązki cemetery. When my son’s body was uncovered, my wife saw that he had been relieved of his coat and shoes. When they were uncovered, the victims held each others legs, and this gave the impression that they had been shot in turn at the edge the grave, and while falling – still alive – had grasped the lying dead.
Apart from my son, two others were also exhumed from the grace: the former President of Warsaw, Słomiński (I don’t remember his first name), and Tadeusz Sobieszczański (a student). I heard that Frenkiel, the son of a well-known actor, a doctor (I don’t remember his surname), and a few Polish policemen were also buried there.
I was kept at Pawiak from 3 February until 13 May 1943, after which I was deported to the camp in Oświęcim. My daughter found herself on the same transport, also headed for Oświęcim. Around 12 May, when the matter had been more or less cleared up by the Gestapo, Szczepaniak – the chairman of the traders’ association, and Wacław Müller – an office worker, were freed. Szczepaniak currently resides in Radość, where he owns a villa. Müller perished in the uprising. Władysław Jankowski was also released (he currently resides in Pruszków), and he now holds the position of manager of the office of the traders’ association in Warsaw at Brzeska Street 18, as was Gustaw Wirt (currently residing in Radość, 3 Maja Street 31).
Apart from myself and my daughter, the following were also deported to Oświęcim: Leszek Rymsza (currently residing in Bródno, at Sądowielska Street 5), Deplewski, (I don’t remember his name), who has not returned to Warsaw to date, [Czytażguski?] (I don’t remember his name), with whom I parted company in Oświęcim towards the end of 1944. I don’t remember the others.
Partially in Pawiak prison, and in part following my return to Warsaw in 1945, I learned that the arrest of my [...], my children and our other co-operators had been due to the activities of a Gestapo informer who had infiltrated the clandestine organisation and worked in my son’s five-man team, Jan Kudryński. In April 1943 the underground organisation was said to have organised the assassination of this informer, which was reportedly successful. Lately someone told me that he saw him in the street. I remember now that this information was given to me by Dangel (residing at Czerwonego Krzyża Street 13). Helena Dangel was in the underground movement and worked as a nurse in Pawiak prison. In April 1943 her husband, Stanisław (before the enforcement of Kudryński’s sentence), was arrested by the Gestapo because Kudryński pointed him out to Gestapo men. As far as I recollect, Dangel was murdered in Pawiak. I know that during a 24-hour interrogation at aleja Szucha he was beaten by the Gestapo.
I must state that during my stay at Pawiak, the prison dentist, Ms Borusiewicz (I don’t know her present address), was the one to whom all of the prisoners turned for information, counsel and assistance. In the women’s ward, the wardens were Polish women who lived outside the facility, and thus the female prisoners had better contact with their families through their agency than the men. I don’t know whether Dr Borusiewicz survived, but I am aware that her husband died in Oświęcim. Much help was given to the prisoners by the ophthalmologist, Doctor Szczepan Wacko, who came to the prison from town. I don’t know his present address and, I think, he no longer lives in Warsaw. I must also mention the helpfulness of the female guard Łapińska, known as "Dear Mother", who brought me smuggled messages from my daughter and facilitated the contacts of other prisoners with their families. I heard that she was arrested and taken to some camp, but has reportedly returned to Warsaw; I don’t know her address.
To return to my testimony concerning the arrest of the group of people connected with the military organisation, including myself and my children, I would like to add that apart from those mentioned in the interview and detained on 3 February 1943, two weeks later the following were arrested in the same case: Władysław Jankowski, Gustaw Wirt, Leszek Rymsza, Deplewski and Wacław Müller.
I was kept at Oświęcim from 13 May 1943 until 29 October 1944. On 2 August 1943 my daughter died in Oświęcim of typhus. She was in Birkenau. Only once did I have the opportunity of speaking with my daughter, and she told me from a distance: "we have to hold out, we have to return". On that occasion I was able to get into the female camp to work on digging a canal. At the time the women were being used for field work.
In the women’s camp the hygienic conditions were terrible, the water was infected, you could not drink it, and there was no water to wash oneself, so people went unbathed for weeks. I was held in
Birkenau for six weeks, after which time I was transported to Oświęcim.
During my time in the camp, beatings were as a rule meted out for the slightest infractions, for example if someone marched incorrectly, and there were also opportunities during work. Towards the end of June 1943 I fell ill with typhus and spent a few weeks in the camp hospital. The doctor, Stanisław Kłodziński from Kraków, a fellow-prisoner and an exceptionally noble man, took care of me.
On a number of occasions I witnessed the selection of sick Jews from the hospital for transport to the crematoriums. I heard that previously Aryans had also been taken. Some 600 people would be selected for transport to the crematorium. I saw Greek Jews who were taken to the crematorium immediately from the trains. Thousands of them died in this manner.
On 29 October 1944, together with a transport of 2 thousand men, I left for the camp in Oranienburg, where I stayed until 5 February 1945. The central camp was called Sachsenhausen and it comprised several dozen barracks and a number of outbuildings: the clinker works, where I spent most of my time (a factory producing bricks and grenades), Heinkel, and even more outbuildings, the names of which I can’t recall. Here, the work was exhausting, and the hygienic conditions terrible. Throughout my period of imprisonment, from October until February, I did not have my shirt changed once.
On 5 February 1945 I was taken from Oranienburg on a transport of weaker and older inmates to the camp in Mauthausen. We travelled for three days. We would received 15 decagrams of bread and 5 decagrams of margarine per day, and nothing to drink. Once we arrived in Mauthausen, there were a few dead bodies in each wagon. While we were being driven on foot uphill to the camp, many of the prisoners fell, exhausted, but their colleagues could not lift them, for they were being pushed onward by the SS men. Once we reached the camp, I saw that a wagon had been sent to collect the bodies of those who fell along the way, and it transported the corpses to the crematorium. I saw that some of the bodies on the wagon had their heads smashed, and therefore gathered that the SS men had finished of the prisoners who were unable to walk due to exhaustion.
It was only on the evening of the fifth day of our incarceration in the camp that our transport received food: some soup and a slice of bread. On the day of our arrival at the camp, I think it was 5 February, the SS officers segregated the stronger and weaker prisoners, and then sent the latter to the bath. I was in this group. At around 11.00 a group of 400 men were ordered to take off their clothes and wait for the bath in the parade square. Fortunately, I was not amongst these 400. The group waited for the bath, naked, throughout the night. It was very cold, the weather was freezing and windy. After a few hours the prisoners started wailing, shouting for help. The SS men surrounded them and finished off any who fell. At night they led them into the bath, showered them with cold water and threw them back out into the cold. They repeated this a few times during the night. Only on the next day were these people, now numbering no more than 100, bathed in warm water and, sick with fever, sent to the block. None of them reported sick to the hospital, for they were afraid that they would be sent to the crematorium.
The conditions at the camp in Mauthausen were terrible. Once a day we received ¾ of a litre of vegetable soup, while the bread was usually mouldy and clearly baked with additives, for it fell apart into a mush. For a few days (in February!) I had to walk in shorts and a sleeveless shirt. In the blocks that were fitted with beds, four men would sleep in one bed, while in other blocks the prisoners slept on the floor, on top of one another. When we were lying down for the night, the German prisoners – criminals – would beat and kick us. I myself was beaten up many times when lying down.
I was in camp III, the so-called camp of death. When the American army arrived, the head of block no. 30 (I don’t know his surname) was hanged by the prisoners. In April 1945 the order was given that all Aryans were to be removed from the camp of death. I was then transferred to a different camp. The camp of death had five blocks, to which the SS men would send prisoners to wear them out. From there, the completely exhausted people would be driven to the crematoriums.
I don’t remember the surnames of our German butchers. Poles who had positions in the camp hierarchy behaved properly. The German prisoners were cruel and on the whole sided with the SS men.