Warsaw, 24 July 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Konstanty Taran |
| Date of birth | 16 September 1892 in Warsaw |
| Parents’ names | Korneliusz and Krystyna, née Tym |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Education | six classes of secondary school |
| Profession | office worker at the Polish State Railways |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Dembińskiego Street 14, flat 2 |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the Marymont district, in my own house at Marii Kazimiery Street 23. I was accompanied by my wife, Stanisława, and daughters Daniela and Jadwiga.
On 1 August 1944 the insurrectionists attacked the barracks at Gdańska Street. The attack was unsuccessful. From then on, the Germans held the barracks until the beginning of September, while in Bielany they occupied a fixed position at the Central Institute of Physical Education. The insurrectionists, whose primary positions were in Żoliborz, held onto Marymont. During the first days of August the Germans erected a bunker at the bend of Marii Kazimiery Street, near to Potocka Street, which was connected through an underground tunnel with the barracks, from where they directed machine gun fire at the vicinity of our house. Thus, the movement of civilians along the street was impossible.
There were some small wooden houses right next to the bunker, and the Germans burnt them down because they gave cover to the insurrectionists.
I heard a few times in August that the Germans had thrown leaflets from airplanes, while in other parts of Marymont they called upon the civilian population to leave the city. I also heard that the Germans had executed a group that had heeded this call by firing squad near the ‚Blaszanka’ (the Metal Products Factory). No one from the vicinity of our house came forward. The German detachment was unable to hold onto the barracks, and in the beginning of September (I don’t remember the exact date) they set fire to it and withdrew to the Central Institute of Physical Education.
On 13 September the artillery shelling of Marymont from the direction of the Central Institute of Physical Education intensified. On this day I didn’t see any insurrectionists in the vicinity of our house. I don’t know whether they withdrew that day, in any case they gave the civilian populace no information whatsoever. On 14 September the shelling intensified, and the wooden houses in Rudzka Street caught fire. The majority of residents from the endangered houses took refuge in the brick house of the Rogalski family at Dembińskiego Street 2/4. Only my wife, my father, Father Korneliusz (aged 90), and I remained in the shelter. At around 14:00 our bunker caught fire and I was forced to leave to search for shelter. Walking into the garden I saw that a group of German soldiers were standing in front of the Rogalskis’ house at Dembińskiego Street 2/4. The civilians were being brought out of the building, and I saw that the soldiers were shooting at these people. I saw bodies of the victims, a few of them, from the side of the property nearer to Marii Kazimiery Street. I was unable to distinguish the soldiers’ unit.
In 1945, during the exhumations that were carried out with the participation of the Polish Red Cross, I saw 140 bodies dug from a mass grave opposite the entrance to the Rogalskis’ house; many of them were recognised by family members.
At the time, on 14 September 1944, seeing that people were being executed in front of the Rogalskis’ house and that our building was aflame, I went together with my wife to the school at Marii Kazimiery Street 21. While we were on the staircase in the recess, I saw a German tank drive up to the school from the side of Rudzka Street and begin firing on it. After a while, when the shooting died down, I looked out again. I saw German units advancing along Marii Kazimiery Street from the direction of Rudzka Street. Amongst them I saw soldiers wearing tall fur caps with red tops. My wife and I withdrew; she remained on the premises of house no. 23, while I went to the property at no. 29, of which I was also the owner. While we were still in the school I had heard desperate – and for me, at the time, unintelligible – screams coming from this direction. When I reached the property at no. 29 I saw that the house was burning and the shelter was empty. I hid in a small well in the courtyard.
In February 1945 I saw that the wall of the burnt down house on the even-numbered side, opposite number 29, had traces of bullets and blood, while a few metres behind the wall a grave had been dug up, from which the bodies of 26 residents of my house and others had been exhumed. I recognised the bodies of the following members of my family: five people from the Makowski family, my daughter Aleksandra Pastwa with her small son Zbigniew, three people from the Zientar family, three people from the Żak family, and two people from the Zientar family. There were also the bodies of three people from the Tkaczyk and a great many others.
I stayed in the well for three days. After that I was found by my wife. I left my hiding place and, together with her and nine other residents from neighbouring houses, we sought refuge in the shelter in the garden. On the very same night that my wife had found me, that is, from 16 to 17 September, a German soldier approached and ordered us to exit the shelter and get out of Warsaw, leaving us to our own devices, however, in this regard.
While I was in the well, I did not look outside and did not see what was happening around me. Even before, when I had been hiding in the school, I saw nearby houses bursting into flames. On 17 September, when the German soldier ordered us to leave the shelter, I saw that all of the neighbouring houses had burnt down, and smoke was rising from the ruins. In accordance with the soldier’s instructions, we proceeded to the monastery in Bielany, where, however, due to overcrowding, we were not allowed to stop. Thus, we went towards Młociny. Along the way we were stopped by some German soldiers at a check-point, and some officer ordered us to get onto a vehicle which took us to the transit camp in Pruszków.
Towards the end of August my daughter, Daniela, had wanted to cross to the other side of Marii Kazimiery Street in order to assist the wounded, but was shot in the lung and taken to the hospital at Krechowiecka Street 6; Jadwiga was with her. Some people told me that my father had suffered burns in the shelter at Marii Kazimiery Street 21 and, wounded in the temple, had been transported from Warsaw and died near Częstochowa.
At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.