Testimony given by citizen Antoni Juszczyński, born on 1 June 1884 in Warsaw, residing at Łochowska Street 15/38.
Concerning: the execution of civilians in Marymont, at Marii Kazimiery Street.
On 1 August 1944, I went to Żoliborz in order to buy some food, but due to the outbreak of the Uprising I couldn’t return to Praga. I spent a few weeks with chance acquaintances. On 2 August I went to Marymont, where I stayed at Marii Kazimiery Street 29. At that time, Marymont was in the hands of the insurgents.
Beginning on 14 September, the Germans proceeded to liquidate the district in the following manner: some 20 tanks arrived from the direction of Bielany and began shelling particular houses. The insurgents retreated to Żoliborz without a fight. In this way, the Germans reached the house at Marii Kazimiery Street 29. A few SS men jumped into the courtyard and threw grenades into the basements, forcing out the civilians who had been hiding there. They ordered everyone to come out. I was wearing a railway uniform. One of the tormentors pulled my hat off my head and beat me for no reason at all. We were ordered to go to the other side of the street, to a house which had previously been burned. There were 32 of us, including women, small children – even a breastfed baby, only year and a half old – and men. We were led into a burned out flat and ordered to kneel by the wall with our arms raised, facing our assailants. A machine gun was placed in front of us.
The execution began at 2.00 p.m. They fired a few rounds along the row of kneeling people. Some shots grazed the skin of my skull (three bullets). I fell to the ground. Immediately afterwards, the bodies of two young people who had been killed fell on top of me. While I was already lying there, I was shot in the left arm, hand, fingers and legs. After the execution, the SS men came three more times to finish off the wounded with rifle shots, and each time they threw two grenades at us. As a result, seven pieces of shrapnel lodged in my fingers.
I lay there for four hours, until 6.00 p.m. Then a German soldier from the WH came to the execution site, probably looking to plunder. Seeing that I was moving, he pulled me from under the corpses and told me not to be afraid. In the same way, he pulled out two women with shattered hands, who had also miraculously survived (one of them was Aleksandra Pastwa), and two children, saved by their parents who had shielded them with their own bodies. The soldier who had pulled us out entrusted our group to the care of some random wounded soldier, also from the Wehrmacht, and the latter took us to the evacuation point for Żoliborz, which was located in the Central Institute of Physical Education. There I parted with my companions in misery.
On the second day we were joined to a group of evacuees in the Camaldolese Church in Bielany. We were divided into two groups: the healthy, and the sick –wounded, disabled, women and children. I was assigned to the latter group. The first group were deported to camps, while we were marched to the banks of the Vistula, where we sat from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Then some gendarme came and told us to go westwards, each on his or her own.
I went to Wawrzyszew, where the village administrator directed me to a first-aid station. I had my wounds dressed there for the first time. Next I went to Babice and then to Pruszków, and from the first-aid station there I was referred to the hospital in Komorów.
I have testified truthfully. I have read the report before signing it.