BRONISŁAW SZABLEWSKI

Warsaw, 8 October 1946. Acting Investigating Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person specified below as a witness; having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Forename and surname Bronisław Aleksander Szablewski
Names of parents Bronisław and Anna
Date of birth 1 July 1908 in Głuchówek
Religious affiliation Roman-Catholic
Nationality and state affiliation Polish
Marital status married, four children
Place of residence Karolkowa Street 78b, flat no. 16
Education secondary
Occupation electroplater

In August, 1943, I do not remember the exact date, I was working on the demolition of buildings near the church in Nowolipki Street for three weeks. I do not remember the name of the company in which I worked. At that time, every day, I could see vehicles from Pawiak prison or from the direction of Warsaw arrive at Nowolipki Street 25. The vehicles from Pawiak prison always drove in through the gate. The vehicles that came from the direction of Warsaw, I was informed by the Jews who were used to transport wood to Nowolipki Street 25, arrived from the Gestapo HQ (at aleja Szucha 25); these vehicles did not drive in through the gate; I could see, from a distance of around 150 meters, the German gendarmes take people out of the vehicles in groups of three, five or sometimes a dozen or so, and escort them through the gate, after which you could hear a salvo. The vehicles that came from Pawiak prison to Nowolipki Street 25 often stayed there for half a day, from which I could infer that they had brought a large transport of people to be executed. Every day, after the execution, I saw Jews delivering wood to Nowolipki Street 25 and I saw columns of smoke belching from that area, and I smelt burning corpses. The piles of corpses to be burnt were not arranged in one place, but in different places in the yard adjacent to the rear of the building at Nowolipki Street 25. This was the same place where an exhumation of human ashes has recently taken place. After three weeks I finished working in the Ghetto. Later, I heard that in November 1943 the Germans had moved the execution site to the former military prison on the corner of Gęsia and Zamenhofa streets.

The witness interview report was read out.