Kalisz, 8 May 1948. Investigating Judge E. Strembski 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 | Karol Sawicki |
| Age | 42 |
| Names of parents | Jan and Anna |
| Place of residence | Kalisz, 23 Stycznia Street 2 |
| Occupation | priest |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
When the Uprising broke out on 1 August 1944, there were 15 priests and 10 friars in the Jesuit house in Warsaw, Rakowiecka Street 61. Additionally, on the premises, there were six servants and five employees of the Jesuits, including one woman. Also, a dozen or so civilians from the streets had taken shelter there. On the next day, 2 August, single gunshots started to be fired at our house, and then artillery shells. At one point, an armoured car drew up at our house and began to fire on us. Everybody ran to the shelter. When the shots stopped, I heard the steps of people entering the flat. Out of curiosity, I came out of the shelter and by the stairs leading from the basement to the ground floor, I spotted a few SS-men. They were already taking people from the ground floor to the basement. They wore helmets and were armed with automatic weapons and grenades, which they had tucked into their belts. In reply to my question, they told me that they had shot at this house because the Home Army was there and it was they who had opened fire on the Germans first. I replied that there were no Home Army units there and our house was not involved in the operation in any way. Then I asked them to check this out, because nobody had fired any shots at the Germans from the house. The SS-men checked all the rooms in our house. (At this juncture, the witness corrects himself and says that they only inspected a few rooms, and very superficially.) Then the superior of the house, Prior Kosibowicz, stepped up and said that he was the superior of this house and he could swear blind that there were no Home Army units on the premises. The Germans then demanded that the Prior go to the commanding officer and clear this issue up. Leaving with the Prior, the SS men ordered us not to disperse across the premises.
I need to mention that when our house was being searched, a boy of 10 or 12 years of age in the German uniform was very active among the SS-men. He was recognized by a 10-year-old boy who hid in our house when the Uprising broke out. Spotting the little soldier, he said that this was the son of a Ukrainian by the name of Kamiński, if I remember correctly, who was the commander of the Vlasovtsy. He lived in the same house as the Polish boy, in Fałata Street, maybe a hundred meters away.
Fifteen minutes after the prior left, the SS-men returned. I cannot tell how many of them came; I only saw three, but the footsteps could be heard in the entire house. My question concerning the whereabouts of the Prior was left unanswered, instead everybody was ordered to get down to the shelter. Around 50 people gathered there, including, if memory serves me right, around five women and the ten-year-old boy. Next, the SS-men called the priest who was standing closest and when he left, the door was locked. We were sure they would call us one by one and execute us. Moments later, the door was opened again and another person was called. I stepped out and noticed three SS-men in the corridor: one by the door of the shelter, another in the middle of the corridor and another still by the door of Iwan the carter’s flat. Having noticed me, the second of the SS-men said in Russian: “ Skolko czasow?” to which I replied nothing, and then he shouted in German: “ Tachen uhr”. I took out my watch and gave it to the SS-man, who handed me over to the third soldier, and he in turn took me to Iwan’s room, where I found the priest who had been taken away before me. In that fashion, all the people gathered in the boiler room were individually taken away: first the priests and then the civilians, all of us having our watches, fountain pens and lighters taken away. When everybody had been gathered in that room, the door opened and I heard the word “ Los” and then the sound of grenades exploding, grenades having been thrown into the room by the SS-men.
I cannot tell how many grenades were thrown into the room. There was incredible mayhem in the room; people could not fall down for lack of space and there were layers of people falling on each other; groans could be heard. After a few moments, fire from automatic weapons was opened on the people leaning; it went silent in the room, the SS-man stopped shooting and walked away.
I raised my head then because I was not even wounded. There were clusters of bodies in the room. At that point, I noticed our residents, three of them, I think; Jan Gruba, Bronisław Dynak and Józef Jarmuz who ran out of the room and into the corridor, where they were shot dead by an SS-man. The latter then came to the room where the execution had taken place, threw another grenade, fired several shots from his automatic gun and walked away. After he left, those still alive and wounded started to move, and the SS-men again opened fire and then left. They would return three times, I believe. During the intervals, a few people managed to run out of the room; they survived.
Eight monks survived the execution:
1) Father Jan Rosiak, resident of Stara Wieś, Brzozów county, Rzeszów voivodeship
2) Father Hugo Kwas, resident of Gdynia, Tatrzańska Street 35
3) Father Leon Mończo, resident of Zakopane, “Górka Jezuici”
4) Father Aleksander Pieńkosz, who, however, died in the uprising at the end of August 1944
5) Father Stanisław Jędrusiak, whose address I do not know
6) Father Aleksander Kisiel, resident of Warsaw, Rakowiecka Street 61
7) Brother Lucjan Korsak, who lives in Lublin, and
8) myself.
Additionally, a few civilians survived, but I do not know their names. Overall, maybe 13 people survived. I survived because I was kneeling behind a layer of corpses. When it all went quiet in the room, two SS-men entered after a while and from their conversation conducted in Ukrainian, I figured that they were going to look for watches. In the process, a shot could be heard from time to time, as they finished off the wounded. When the SS-men went out, three other priests, a woman and I went out of the room and hid in the wood store. In the evening, the room where the corpses were was set on fire.
When Warsaw was taken over by the Soviet army, an eyewitness told us that Prior Kosibowicz had been executed by the City Gardens in Rakowiecka Street, soon after he was taken away from the Jesuit house. The witness showed us the location where the prior was buried. I learned that the bodies had been exhumed, identified and buried in the very room where the execution took place. A mass grave was created there.
I have testified everything.
The report was read out.