BRONISŁAW JANKOWSKI

Warsaw, ... July 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 the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Bronisław Jankowski
Parents’ names Szczepan and Karolina
Date of birth 24 August 1893 in Warsaw
Occupation voivodeship chief of the Raw Hides Centre in Warsaw
Education secondary
Place of residence Chmielna Street 38, flat 2
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

At the end of March 1944, I don’t remember the exact date, in the afternoon, there was an execution of a large group of men, over a hundred to my eye, on the spot where there had been a house which had been demolished before the war, between nos. 1 and 3 on Bonifraterska Street. I had warehouses at Bonifraterska Street 4 and I came there during the execution from the direction of Mławska Street. When I entered a flat on the third floor, I saw through a window the execution of the last nine men. The executed wore grey clothes. They were screaming, one young boy was crying and shouting “mother”, another one was shouting “I am not guilty”. They were being executed with automatic rifles. The victims were standing by the wall encircling the Ghetto, opposite the gendarmes with “Gendarmerie” bands on their arms.

Which squad was carrying out the execution, I do not know. I don’t know the names either of the gendarmes or of the executed.

I would like to correct my testimony: the gendarmes were standing by the paling, and the prisoners were standing opposite them. The prisoners had their hands tied, except for one whose trousers fell down. I don’t remember whether there were posters giving notice about the execution.

The report was read out.