WACŁAW KONARSKI

29 January 1946, Warsaw. Acting as investigative judge, Halina Wereńko, appointed to sit on the 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 statements and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:


Name and surname Wacław Longin Konarski
Date and place of birth 29 July 1908, Warsaw
Parents names Ludwik and Maria, née Madejska
Occupation turner, works in the power station
Education elementary school, vocational school for metalworkers
Place of residence aleja 3 Maja 2, flat 15, Warsaw
Religious affiliation Catholic
Criminal record none

During the Warsaw Uprising I lived at Wolska Street 11, flat 31. On the night of 5 August 1944 our house began to burn. Smoke reached the basement where I was staying with my family: my brother Jan, my brother-in-law Wiśniewski, and Władysław Zawadzki, Rutkowski or Rudnicki and several other persons. Because of the fire we came out into the courtyard, undeterred by the noise of firearms outside. It was already dark but as our house was engulfed in flames I could see the corpses of a man and a woman lying in the courtyard. Apart from a group of Germans in uniforms, there were some dark shapes moving at a distance. We were ordered to go into Krochmalna Street, where a group of four Germans standing next to the house at no. 90 separated the men from the women. The men were ordered to stay, while the women were sent along Krochmalna Street in the direction of Karolkowa Street. I believe there were seven of us.

We were taken to the courtyard of the house at no. 90 and lined up against the fence. The Germans, all of them drunk, began to shoot. I fell after the first salvo without receiving any wounds. The fourth German, who hadn’t been a part of the firing squad, walked up to us lying there, nudged everyone with his leg, asked in Polish – are you alive you Polish bandit – and then shot. I think that I survived because he was completely drunk. It was really hard to lie there because the neighboring house was on fire and burning boards were falling around us, but I didn’t get up until after the Germans had left, and then I escaped with my brother into the basement of the burning house where we found my brother-in-law, Wiśniewski, and where we were soon joined by Duda, who also survived the execution.

I think that three persons were killed at that time: Zawadzki, Rutkowski, and the man whose name I don’t remember. I spent a few weeks in the basement situated under the burning house. Except for the group I have just mentioned, there were many other people who came to the basement, but I don’t know their names and I have never seen them again.

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