KAZIMIERZ SUCHARZEWSKI

Warsaw, 11 February 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Kazimierz Sucharzewski
Parents’ names Wincenty and Rosalia, née Kornadzka
Date of birth 25 May 1914
Religion Roman Catholic
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Education vocational school
Place of residence Warsaw, Trembowelska Street
Profession driver with the PKS (Polish Long-Distance Bus Service)

On 1 August 1944 I reported to one of the Home Army detachments in the Ochota district. This detachment was tasked with capturing the Tobacco Monopoly building at Kaliska Street. The attack began on 1 August at around 17:00. We occupied the building on the morning of the next day, and remained there until 6 or 7 August (I don’t remember the exact date). Subsequently our detachment withdrew to the premises of the Nasierowskich Factory, where we stayed until 9 August, after which I proceeded on my own to my house at the corner of Sękocińska and Kaliska streets.

On 11 or 12 August a unit of ‘Ukrainians’ and SS men entered our premises. Acting in a brutal manner, they evicted the civilians and, having robbed them of everything, they marched them off in the direction of the Zieleniak. Along with a doctor (I don’t know his surname) from the hospital at Joteyki Street 6, I transported two wounded women on a cart.

While at the Zieleniak, I tended to the wounded without pause, changing their dressings together with the doctor. The wounded were placed beside a wall. Some time later, a transport column was formed and led away from the Zieleniak. I remained with a group of some one hundred wounded. Amongst them were elderly women and children. The wounded had been placed beside a wall in the Zieleniak square. I saw how they were shot by soldiers wearing German uniforms, who later carried their bodies for incineration. Some were still alive, and the ‘Ukrainians’ threw them into the fire. The ‘Ukrainians’ selected three young men from the groups of people who continued to arrive at the Zieleniak and used them, together with myself, to burn the bodies. The corpses were burned between two walls in a school adjacent to the Zieleniak; in all probability, this could have formerly been a gymnasium. We were ordered to collect bodies from the whole square, and specifically those lying by the wall, where the wounded had been executed. One day (I don’t remember the exact date) we were carrying the bodies of people who had been shot and a rumour spread that these were patients from the Radium Institute.

Once the Zieleniak was tidied up, we would be taken into the streets to burn corpses. We burned bodies in Grójecka Street near the hostel, in Narutowicza Square, and at other locations. We would carry the corpses in from the streets and burn them on a pile. Bodies that were decomposing would be incinerated on the spot. While walking along Grójecka Street, I saw a great number of bodies in the shop at the corner of Grójecka and Niemcewicza streets. I saw a few scattered bodies at the gate of the house at Grójecka Street 20b. In the shelter at that address we found some 70 – 100 corpses with gunshot wounds, and among them I recognised 17-year old Lubiański. One Górski, who used to live in the house, survived the execution.

All of the bodies were burned in the shelter. I worked with a student who took notes of our activities. I don’t know his address or surname, but I do recall that before the uprising he lived at Chałubińskiego Street and that his name was Jerzy. Around 16 August 1944 (I don’t remember the exact date) we were transported out of Warsaw. While we were leaving, I saw that the Zieleniak was completely devoid of people.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.