Warsaw, 4 May 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Antoni Józef Porzygowski |
| Names of parents | Stanisław and Jadwiga n ée Wiśniewska |
| Date of birth | 6 April 1891 in Warsaw |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| State of affiliation and nationality | Polish |
| Education | three grades of elementary school |
| Occupation | baker, owner of a bakery in Milanówek |
| Place of residence | Milanówek, Stalina Boulevard (Krakowska) 10 |
The outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising caught me in Ward X of Mokotów Prison. I was being detained there in connection with illegal commercial activities (being a middleman in selling eggs), and having been sentenced to four years in prison. At the end of July 1944, the prison authorities received an order from the German authorities to release all prisoners. Inmates sentenced to no more than five years started to be released on 23 July and this continued for a few days. On 31 July, the order was revoked in light of instances of malpractice on the part of the prison authorities, such as taking bribes for granting release. The director of the office demanded that I pay 10,000 zloties for being released (I do not remember the name of this German).
Before they started to release prisoners, the prisoner count was over one thousand. The warden was a German in the position of Regierungsrat (I do not know his name). The director of the prison was a German by the name of Hitzinger.
On 2 August 1944 around 4.00 p.m., an SS unit – from the barracks located opposite the prison, I believe – took over the prison. The SS men took the prisoners from two wards located downstairs, where prisoners under investigation were held. They told them to dig pits, 25 to 30 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1 meter deep. One was along Ward X from the direction of the laundry, another in the exercise yard from the direction of aleja Niepodległości, and another in the exercise yard from the direction of Kazimierzowska Street. I saw it from the windows of my cell on the first floor from the side of the exercise yards. I saw how a group of some 12 SS-men was drinking vodka from one-liter bottles taken from a box, while the prisoners were digging the pits. When the pits were dug, I saw how the SS-men told a group of around 60 prisoners who had dug them to face the pits and then shot them in the back with light machine guns. I heard how SS-men opened cells on the first floor and took prisoners, in groups of a dozen or so, to the pits and then shot them in the back. Some of these people were told to remove their shoes and clothes prior to the execution. I saw how some prisoners from the infirmary were executed that way. Later, I learnt that those less seriously ill had escaped: they got to the attic and from there, at night they scaled the outer wall and were helped by civilians.
I later came across one survivor who had been in that group, but I do not know his name. He was in the Home Army.
At that time, recidivists and prisoners serving long sentences were grouped on the ground floor in Ward X. Ward III – the sanitation ward – and Ward V were also on the ground floor. I saw that the prisoners from the ground floor were taken away first. I was in Ward X on the first floor, in cell 29. I heard SS-men approaching my cell and then I hid under the bed. At that time, my only cellmate was Jan Landzki (under investigation in connection with illegal commercial activities); the third prisoner, Alfred Łopata (deceased), had been taken to the prison in Wiśnicz before the Uprising. The SS-men took Landzki first. Then, an SS-man lifted the bed and started to kick me; I was taken away some time later. As I was going downstairs, I saw Landzki on the ground floor, in a group of prisoners. Landzki’s brother currently works as an engineer in Warsaw. I was taken alone to the pit by the boiler room in the exercise yard from the direction of aleja Niepodległości. An SS-man told me to face the pit and fired a shot and kicked me. The bullet whizzed near my ear (I heard the whistle) and I fell onto the corpses, face down. I was lying still and then I came round. Other bodies fell onto me. I heard shots of killing and finishing off the wounded who had moved. At one point, unable to bear the weight of the bodies, I decided to stand up and end my life. I was sure that as soon as I got up, the SS-men would shoot me. I looked up and I saw that there was nobody above. I extricated myself from under the corpses with difficulty, losing my slippers, and I crawled under the boiler room, where I burrowed myself in coal dust.
A prisoner, whose name I do not know, extricated himself from under the bodies together with me. I know that his father and brother were executed at that time. He was wounded in the right ear. I know that he later joined the Home Army. We both burrowed ourselves in the coal dust. It had been raining during the execution and it was raining now. It was around 9.00 p.m., so it was already dark. After some time, we heard the sound of people tramping and I saw a group of prisoners escaping through the roof of the printing ward and over the wall, into aleja Niepodległości. We joined the escapees,and civilians were providing ladders. There were around 240 – 260 of us. That way, I figured that upwards of 600 prisoners had been executed. From the group of prisoners escaping with me (Zygmunt Szypulski, we were escaping together, I do not know his address, in Warsaw) I learnt that the prisoners on the first floor in Ward VII used the pews to smash the wall separating two cells, teamed up and then, when a group of SS-men arrived, they overpowered them, took their weapons and opened fire on other groups of SS-men. To seal the passage, they set the mattresses on fire and blocked the passage with pews. They set other prisoners free, got to the ground floor, and passing the kitchen, with torrential rain pouring down, they teamed up with us.
I do not know if anyone had remained in the building. Escaping, I did not hear any shots fired in our direction. It was raining heavily. The SS-men would have expected that the prisoners would escape through the main gate, but they escaped through the roof of the paper store and down the ladder provided by the civilians. This is how I account for the fact that there was no pursuit.
I do not know which wards the escaped prisoners had occupied. From among the prisoners who escaped with me, I only know Zygmunt Szypulski (currently residing in Warsaw, I do not know the exact address).
I later heard that escaped prisoner Ratajski and his cellmate, a railwayman (I do not know his name), were executed by the Home Army for collaborating with the Germans.
The prisoners told me that the SS-men finished off the wounded in trenches, throwing grenades at them. I did not see that myself, nor did I hear grenades exploding, or maybe I did not realise this was happening. The prisoners told me that before the execution, the SS-men locked the Polish guards in a cell. The guards survived and I came across a few of them, including Karpiński (Ward X commandant). His brother ran a grocery store in Łowicz (I do not know the address). In Grodzisk, Sergeant Dunajczyk was seen (I do not know his current address).
I do not know whether the prison inspector Szperlek was in the prison on 2 August.
After I escaped, the insurgents dressed my wounds and gave me clean clothes, and then I got to Sadyba.
At this point the report was concluded and read out.