On 20 May 1947 in Nasielsk, judge E.W. Kołodziejczyk, with a court reporter, Z. Miączyński, present, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for giving false testimony, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Stanisław Laskowski |
Age | 40 |
Names of parents | Jan and Antonina |
Place of residence | Nasielsk, Młynowska Street 21 |
Occupation | merchant |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Criminal record | none |
Relationship to the parties | none |
On 5 August 1944, I was present as the Germans carried out an execution of Poles at Górczewska Street 53 in Warsaw, which I consider an example of regular murder, aimed at the annihilation of the Polish nation. The victims of this crime were not insurgents but civilians. There had been insurgents on the premises, but they had retreated before the Germans entered. I believe that the Germans action was a case of fierce retaliation, out of helplessness, for the insurgents’ activities.
Initially, the Germans would take groups of 25 to be terminated, then, for reasons unknown, groups of 50, and the final group that I was part of was of an unspecified number. In the course of this operation, the Germans took the lives of some 500 people. I avoided death because when the Germans ordered us to swiftly move towards the pile of corpses in the courtyard across from the house at Górczewska Street 53, I jumped into the corridor of a house that was not yet on fire. With me were two wounded women from the execution and five men, including Stanisław Sałoń from Błonie. I was not wounded in the execution.
At the corner of Działdowska Street there was a barricade defended by the insurgents. Theoperation was carried out by SS-men. Not only men were executed, but also women and children. I was so shaken by this execution that even today, whenever I recall it, I cannot find fitting words of outrage and condemnation.
The report was read out.