EDWARD PASZKOWSKI

Warsaw, 28 March 1950. Janusz Gumkowski, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Forename and surname Edward Paszkowski
Date and place of birth 5 January 1909, Karczew, Garwolin county
Names of parents Wawrzyniec and Józefa, née Węzińska
Father’s occupation laborer
State affiliation Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education able to sign his name
Occupation laborer
Place of residence 11 Listopada Street 64, flat 16
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at 11 Listopada Street 64. The Germans were stationed in barracks on the odd-numbered side of our street. Opposite our house were Wehrmacht infantry units, while SS-men were quartered at Ratuszowa Street. On the first day of the Uprising, insurgents from Praska Street started shooting towards the barracks. German tanks drove up to Praska and św. Wincentego streets, surrounded them, and killed them to a man. A few houses in św. Wincentego Street were burned down.

People who found themselves in the street when the Uprising broke out started pounding on the gates – which the Germans had ordered to be shut. However, the caretakers let the people in. The caretaker of Letnia Street 12 opened the gate for a few men (I do not know whether they were insurgents), who had thrown an assault grenade in the direction of a German detachment that had been proceeding from Stalowa Street to the barracks. The grenade did not cause the Germans any harm, but they were infuriated and burst into that house. They found only the caretaker and the son of the house’s owner, Julian Zakrzewski (currently resident in Łódź). The Germans took both of them to the barracks. Zakrzewski was set free once he managed to prove that he was returning from work, while the caretaker was treacherously shot when, having been released from the barracks, he was entering the gate of the house at Letnia Street 12.

Many caretakers were beaten up by the Germans for letting in the people who had found themselves by chance in the street in contravention of the German order prohibiting the opening of gates. I learned of this fact after the Uprising while talking to a few caretakers who had been thus mistreated (I no longer remember their surnames).

Men from all over Praga were deported to Germany. I was lucky and avoided being put on a transport. The Germans would surround streets and take all the men to the assembly point at the corner of Ratuszowa and 11 Listopada streets. I was attached to a group that worked on the trenches in Grochów. After a few days, along with three other men, I managed to return home in order to change clothes. I did not return to work. I hid until the arrival of Soviet forces in our area.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.