JÓZEF KOZAKIEWICZ

Warsaw, 6 March 1947. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Associate Judge Halina Wereńko, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Józef Kozakiewicz
Date of birth 20 January 1893 in Sosnowiec
Education six grades of secondary school
Occupation clerk in the Warsaw Directorate for Reconstruction
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Place of residence Płatowcowa Street 13, flat 3

During the Warsaw Uprising, I lived at Miłobędzka Street 6 in Warsaw. At that time, on the premises of the Mokotów fort, there were German troops commanded by General Doerfler, whose headquarters were on Racławicka Street in Popowicz’s house.

A few weeks before the outbreak of the Uprising, the Germans made preparations for the defense of the Mokotów fort, reinforcing the wire fence around the fort and, having forced the civilians out, taking over a number of houses on Płatowcowa Street, Balonowa Street, etc.

On 1 August 1944, after 5.00 p.m., while repelling an insurgent attack, General Doerfler’s troops began to force civilians out of nearby houses. I heard that after its inhabitants were executed, Maria Konarska’s house was burned down in revenge for serving as an insurgent foothold.

I don’t know how many people were executed there exactly. I was forced out of my house at around 6.00 p.m. by a soldier from the air force, who forbade me to take anything with me. He was shouting “raus” brutally. I heard that many acts of violence and shooting at passers- by were perpetrated during the expulsion civilians from their homes. I didn’t see such things myself.

Along with others who lived in the vicinity of the Mokotów fort, I was taken to the fort dungeon, parallel to Racławicka Street, closer to Płatowcowa Street. When we were incarcerated in the dungeon, we encountered a group of strangers, including two young boys in railway uniforms who, I presume, were insurgents, but they were immediately taken to the headquarters and never returned.

Later, rumors spread that passers-by caught by chance in the neighborhood were being brought in by the Germans and that General Doerfler and a judge-advocate were trying them. People were saying that some of these people were executed, but none of us saw any such thing.

On 3 August 1944, some men, including Professor Lipiński and Boch, were tasked with burying corpses at Racławicka Street, opposite the dungeon where we were incarcerated. They told us afterwards that they buried the corpses of twelve men and a young girl – judging by their clothes, they had been insurgents.

On 6 August, as I was sick, I was lying in the grass on the eastern side of the fort (Balonowa Street) and saw from a distance of some 100 meters four German soldiers carrying a corpse on a blanket out of a shelter; they later buried the corpse behind the shelter, opposite the corner of Balonowa and Racławicka streets. I heard that later more people were buried in that spot.

Who and for what was killed then, I don’t know.

At that the report was concluded and read out.