EUGENIUSZ ZIELIŃSKI

Warsaw, 28 March 1950. Trainee Judge Irena Skonieczna, 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 Eugeniusz Zieliński
Date and place of birth 21 July 1893, Warsaw
Names of parents Karol and Jadwiga, née Kasperowicz
Father’s occupation stonemason
State affiliation Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation builder
Place of residence Białostocka Street 45, flat 30
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was at home at Białostocka Street 45. Our area was relatively peaceful throughout this time. We could walk around the streets, but this was extremely dangerous, for the Germans shot at people who were in the streets. So we mainly stayed in the basements. On a few occasions, I no longer remember the dates, the Germans put up posters instructing all of the men to appear at a specified assembly point, usually the square near the Orthodox church. From there they were deported to Germany. The Germans threatened that any man who was found in a district after the passage of the deadline for the men from the locality to report to the assembly point would be shot on the spot.

Towards the end of August or in the beginning of September, some two weeks before Soviet forces entered Praga, the Germans gathered up the men from our area and from Targówek, from between Radzymińska Street and św. Wincentego Street. I then escaped to Targówek from the other side of the tracks, to a house at Namiestnikowska Street.

I heard that during the first days of the Uprising the Germans were looking for insurgents in these areas, but I do not know whether they found them or whether they executed them.

Both while hiding in Targówek and staying in our area, I did not hear anything about German crimes committed during the Uprising. When the Germans finished gathering the men from our area and passed on to other districts, I returned to my house at Białostocka Street 45 and hid there, together with other men from our building, until Soviet forces entered Praga.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.