PAWEŁ SZWEJKOWSKI

On 9 October 1946 in Katowice, Examining Judge A. Bubik interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. The witness was advised 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 Paweł Szwejkowski
Age 31 years
Parents’ names Bolesław and Weronika
Place of residence Katowice Ligota, Kaszubska Street 18, flat 3
Occupation student at the Polytechnic
Criminal record none

After the uprising I travelled to Warsaw some six times. My brother-in-law, Dr Władysław Mazurek, was the vice-chairman of the Main Welfare Council in Pruszków, and because it was a time of round-ups and such, he simply wangled a job for me as an escort on a Council vehicle. I was not a member of the Management Board. I would be instructed by the Main Welfare Council to go on trips to Warsaw, but I am unable to say on what grounds we travelled or on what grounds we gathered the assets of the shoe and floor polish factory (a machine for the production of candles, left over raw materials, etc.).

Krzyżanowski, the owner of the factory (Puławska Street, corner of Unii Lubelskiej Square), would go with me and take care of everything. I was to receive 40 thousand zlotys and transfer this sum in favour of the Main Welfare Council. Krzyżanowski first paid 20 thousand zlotys, but only after some time did he settle the remaining balance of 20 thousand. I did not travel on other affairs.

I don’t have the act of capitulation of the city of Warsaw in my possession.

Following the surrender of Warsaw, I saw no deliberate acts consisting in the demolition or burning down of houses, but I did witness drunken Germans who pillaged houses fully aware of what they were doing, and sometimes such behaviour resulted in fires being started, etc.

I now remember that in Śniadeckich Street I saw a group of Germans who were setting fire to successive houses in turn.

I would like to add that already during the Warsaw Uprising I would travel on behalf of the Main Welfare Council’s hospital food campaign, and I did then witness columns of German soldiers setting fire to houses on Okopowa Street, Aleje Niepodległości, and Smolna Street, and also blowing up the sewers, fully aware of what they were doing.