Warsaw, 25 February 1946. The investigating judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard as a witness the person specified below. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the importance of the oath the witness was sworn and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Romuald Zakrzewski, codename “Wiktor” |
| Date of birth | 18 November 1912 in Bartkowa Rudnia, Berdyczów district |
| Parents’ names | Mikołaj and Emilia née Sławek |
| Occupation | forester in the municipal forest district of Kabaty |
| Education | forest engineer |
| Place of residence | Kabaty, Wilanów commune |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
During the German occupation I worked, as I do now, as a forester in the forest district of Kabaty. In the winter of 1939 or at the beginning of 1940, I don’t remember the exact date, there was an execution of Polish people in the 15th division of the Kabacki Forest. The execution took place at night. I learned about it from an eyewitness, a ranger from that division, Stanisław Cieślak, now dead. Cieślak saw the execution as he was working there at that time. He saw eight trucks with people in plain clothes and a few cars with gendarmes and SS men. One truck could hold easily 25–30 people, so in eight trucks there might have been up to 200 people. The SS men noticed Cieślak and told him to leave, and they surrounded the 15th division of the forest. Upon leaving, Cieślak heard from some distance the volley of machine gun shots and grenade explosions. For how long he could hear them, he did not say. On the next day he went there and saw about 150 square meters of recently turned earth. I learned about this from ranger Cieślak half a year after the event. The grave is in the same condition now, I know the place and I can show it. I don’t know the names of those executed then and I don’t know from where they had been brought for the execution.
The second execution in the Kabacki Forest was in 1942, on 24 or 25 June. I don’t remember the exact day, but I know it was on Corpus Christi day, two days after the execution of about 200 Polish people in Magdalenka. On Corpus Christi day, I was stopped and turned back by an SS patrol on the border of the 13th division. Then I went by bike to the 8th division and I was again turned back by an SS patrol. I understood that the forest was surrounded. On the next day I went with ranger Czesław Filipek (deported by the Germans to a salt mine in Germany on 22 or 24 August 1944, from where he has not come back and has not given any sign of life) to the 14th division of the Kabacki Forest. In that division we spotted tire marks which led us into the forest, to a clearing where we saw unexpectedly a few spruces which had not been growing there before, and yellowed turf covering a patch of ground 6 meters wide and 6 meters long. The nearby ground was trampled on, I found there a German newspaper “Stürmer” from the previous day and tickets to the “Apollo” cinema, mouthpieces, and cigarette packs. I took hold of one spruce and I saw that it was barely stuck into the ground; I kicked the turf and I saw that it had been put there. On the following day I surrounded this place with my people and began to dig in the spot near the spruces that was covered with turf. At the depth of about 1.8 to 2 meters we found a pile of mutilated bodies, as I suspect resulting from the shooting and grenade explosions. The bodies were tied with ropes. I saw a corpse of a man who had his hands tied crosswise, and his chest and arms mutilated with grenade explosions. The trees around that place had marks of shooting. I took from the ditch a man’s hat, a belt made of fabric, and a scarf – all those things, stained with blood, I gave to my superiors from the Home Army who could thus determine the names and surnames of the executed. I don’t have the list of the executed myself, so I don’t know any names.
A few weeks later a list of the executed was published in the underground press, in “Biuletyn Informacyjny” and in “Rzeczpospolita”, where I read it myself. According to their information, 40 men and one woman were executed then, and they were all taken from Pawiak prison. The ditch which we dug we then covered with earth and turf to make it look like before.
I have photographs of trees shot during the execution. About 21 January 1945 the trees that had been shot were stolen, and there is no trace of them left. Who did this, I did not manage to find out.
I uncovered the grave with: Czesław Filipek (missing), Władysław Kabański (residing in the Kabaty forest district as a ranger), Stanisław Szymonek (dead), Karol Kiełbiewski (residing in Kabaty, Wilanów commune), Piotr Małecki (residing in Lisy village, Wilanów commune), Zbigniew Zdrójkowski (residing in Toruń, state forests directorate).
The execution site and the grave are in the same state as previously, only now there is a cross there; I can show that place.
If I remember correctly, in 1943 the Germans were bringing Jews to the 11th, 16th, 17th, 3rd and 10th divisions and were executing them one by one. Some 25 Jewish people were executed that way. The graves are easily found, any ranger would recognize them.
On 18 July 1943, the Germans brought 10 men from Pawiak to the 17th division of the Kabacki Forest and executed them there. Among the executed there was engineer Bogucki, whose first name I do not know. I learned about this from gravediggers, eyewitnesses of the execution, whose names I do not recall now, but I will later submit them to the citizen judge. Those gravediggers received the clothes of the executed and 5 PLN each for burying the executed. Engineer Bogucki’s identity card was in his fur, and this is how I learned that he had been killed then. I can show the grave. Policemen from Pyry told me that the execution of ten men from Pawiak in the Kabacki Forest was in revenge for the killing of a warrant officer of the blue police in Tłuszcz or Wołomin.
The gravediggers told me that the Polish people were executed by the blue policemen, of whom one refused to do so and was taken away in an unknown direction.
On 28 August 1943, the Germans brought 20 men to the 17th division of the Kabacki Forest and executed them there, among them Pawłowski from Grójec, whose first name I do not know. My ranger, Władysław Żaroń, told me that on the road in Pyry one of the people who were being taken for execution to the Kabacki Forest shouted, “Pawłowski, Grójec, notify my family”. The same three gravediggers who witnessed the above-described execution of 18 July 1943 witnessed also this one.
I will presently submit the names of the gravediggers. From where the prisoners had been brought I do not know. I can show the grave.
On 28 September 1943, the Germans brought 14 men to the 17th division of the Kabacki Forest and executed them there. I don’t know the names of the executed and I don’t know from where they had been brought. People were saying that the prisoners from Pawiak were being brought for execution there. I heard about the execution from other people, from the gravediggers who were eyewitnesses of the execution. These were the same three gravediggers whom I have already mentioned. I can show the grave.
Apart from those mass executions (the greatest number of them took place in 1943), the German gendarmes were bringing people separately and executing them, but it was not known who they were and for what they were being executed. In 1943, about 20 people died in this manner and their graves are only partially visible.
As for the execution of about 200 people which took place on 27 June 1942 in Magdalenka (near Sękocin), I know that among others they executed then my cousin, a captain of the Polish Army, Józef Wolski alias “Jacek”, who had been arrested by the Gestapo after he had been denounced by his student from the officer cadet school from before 1939. More details could be provided by the wife of the executed, Genowefa Wolska (currently residing in Pruszków, I don’t know the exact address). I learned about the execution in Magdalenka from the “Biuletyn Informacyjny”.
I have repeatedly petitioned the Commune National Council in Wilanów for exhumation of the graves in the Kabacki Forest – but to no avail. I also made this information publicly known in the press.
The report was read out.