Warsaw, 13 September 1947. The member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes acting as judge, Halina Wereńko, 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 | Edward Antoni Leopold Barcz |
| Names of parents | Oskar and Maria née Hanierow |
| Date of birth | 23 December 1911, in Russia |
| Religious affiliation | Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession |
| Occupation | surgeon |
| Place of residence | Biała Podlaska, district hospital |
During the Warsaw Uprising, I stayed in Kolonia Staszica. The battalion “Odwet”, under the command of lieutenant Roman, and the company of the armed battalion commanded by lieutenant “Pług”, took part in the insurgent action. The second company of that battalion, commanded by lieutenant Zieliński, did not take part in the action because of a lack of weapons. On 1 August 1944, the first platoon of lieutenant “Pług” attacked the building of the Voivodeship on Sucha Street. Around ten SS men, a unit of Selbstschutz numbering around 40 people, and a unit of anti-aircraft artillery numbering around 20 people, supposedly from the artillery service on Pole Mokotowskie, stayed in the Voivodeship, as it later turned out. Already on 1 August, two trucks of German aviators arrived at aleja Szucha, which paralyzed the attack of the insurgents, who only conducted defensive action in the area from that time on. Another platoon of lieutenant “Pług” attacked the Germans on Sędziowska Street 3, from which the Germans retreated on the night of 2 and 3 August. On the night of 7 and 8 August, the insurgents started to retreat through Pole Mokotowskie and along 6 Sierpnia Street to the Śródmieści district.
On 1 August 1944, I was a commander of a field hospital of the 3rd armed battalion. The hospital was scattered among several places. There were 11 heavily wounded and four wounded able to walk on their own, and around fifteen nurses of the Home Army in the villa on the corner of Prezydencka Street and Langiewicza Street. I was there on 4 August for the last time and only from nurses’ reports I know that on 6 August a unit of “Ukrainians” from the Stanisłałów area, with R.O.N.A. badges, who were loitering there and looting the villa, came across the field hospital on the corner of Prezydencka Street and Langiewicza Street. The lightly wounded escaped, 11 wounded remained in the hospital, only severe cases, fractures of the lower limbs, chest wounds etc. The “Ukrainians” murdered all the severely wounded with grenades and set the building on fire. I don’t remember the surnames of the murdered, I can only provide pseudonyms of two: “Żeliga” and “Ruszczyc”. Six insurgents from the hospital hid in the basement and survived, I don’t know their names. A part of the hospital personnel fell into the hands of the “Ukrainians”, and a few nurses were raped. Dr Tadeusz Orłowski treated two of them, currently employed in an inner Dzięciątka Jezus clinic in Warsaw.
On 5 August, together with my brother, Ludwik Barcz, I was led out in a group of around 30 residents from a house by a unit of “Ukrainians” with R.O.N.A. badges, commanded by an officer, a lieutenant from the Waffen-SS-Galizien, speaking Ukrainian. All those led out were robbed of jewelry and other valuable items on the street. Two soldiers with machine guns stood next to the group. The officer communicated with the soldiers and after some consultation we were led to the house at Sędziowska Street 3. A soldier dragged three elderly women and took them to the gate. We heard three shots after a while, and the “Ukrainian” returned alone. The “Ukrainians” dragged ten people from a block of houses on the corner of Aleja Niepodległości and Sędziowska Street, added them to the group, and directed us all to a hall of the block on Aleja Niepodległości 221, from the side of the yard facing Sędziowska Street. We found a group of around 20 people already in the hall, mostly women and older men. They were the residents of that block and of neighboring houses. After entering the hall, using the momentary confusion, I, my brother, and a worker, whose name I don’t know, escaped on the stairs to the third floor and went into the flat of an unknown man. After a moment, we heard shots, moans, and grenade explosions from the hall. The shots were in series, from hand machine guns. After five minutes the shots ceased.
We heard steps reaching the third floor. I learned later that the “Ukrainians” had asked a resident woman on the first floor whether someone had escaped upstairs. She had given her word that nobody had gone on the stairs. After the “Ukrainians” had gone away, I walked down with my brother and together with the residents of the block, we counted that 48 people had been murdered.
The corpses were buried in the yard, and exhumed in autumn 1945.
Two men and one woman survived the execution, all suffered a nerve shock.
I don’t know their names.
I remained in the house on Sędziowska Street 10 with my brother, then we got through to Śródmieście.
I heard that the residents of the block on Sędziowska Street were led into Zieleniak on 12 August 1944.
At this the report was concluded and read out.