TADEUSZ SIECZKARSKI

16 January 1950, Warsaw. Trainee judge Irena Skonieczna, acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Tadeusz Sieczkarski
Date and place of birth 4 December 1910, Warsaw
Parents’ names Adolf and Anna, née Kłodzianka
Father’s occupation carpenter
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Catholic
Education secondary
Occupation laboratory assistant
Place of residence Warsaw, Piaskowa Street 14, flat 1
Criminal record none

At the moment when the Warsaw Uprising began, I was at the Polytechnic, where I had worked at the Institute of Aerodynamics from 1939. Until 19 August 1944 the Polytechnic remained in the hands of the insurgents. The Germans carried out their attacks mainly from the direction of aleja Niepodległości. On 19 August they launched a violent assault from the direction of aleja Niepodległości and the hospital on 6 Sierpnia Street. It wasn’t long before they seized the technology, electrotechnical and aerodynamics departments, the residential building from the side of Nowowiejska Street, and the building that housed the physics department. The insurgents withdrew from these buildings to the boiler house in the old chemistry building and to the Polytechnic’s main building. At about noon, under strong pressure from the Germans, the insurgents had to withdraw from the boiler house to the main building. Using a dug-up tunnel, we began to evacuate the wounded, the medical personnel and the Polytechnic staff from that building to the house at Noakowskiego Street 10. That day (19 August), in the evening, we all got through a tunnel to Noakowskiego Street. The last insurgent units left the chemistry building at about 10.00 p.m. Fierce artillery fire from the direction of Pole Mokotowskie prevented the insurgents from continuing the fight in this area. In the evening, Tigers appeared in the grounds of the Polytechnic. Further resistance was no longer possible here and the insurgents had to retreat. From Noakowskiego Street we carried out a few sorties into the grounds of the Polytechnic, one of which was more serious. However, because of the lack of weapons, we were unable to take it back.

At the end, or perhaps in mid-September, our entire unit, “Golski”, was shifted from the front line to Wilcza Street, to the corner of Emilii Plater Street, where I stayed until 5 October. That day the Germans took us to the Kraftpark at aleja Niepodległości, where we laid down our weapons. We were escorted by Wehrmacht soldiers along Filtrowa and Grójecka streets to Wolska Street, and further to Ożarów, to the furniture factory.

After my return to Warsaw in November 1946 I learned from both Zielińskis, workers at the Polytechnic, that their husbands, Grzelak (a janitor at the aerodynamics department), and some three civilians whom I didn’t know were shot in the Kraftpark. The men were taken from the aerodynamics department, which was the first to be captured by the Germans. The women, who were taken along with the men, were sent from the Kraftpark to Pruszków. There were no other executions on the grounds of the Polytechnic. Many people were killed but they were killed in the fighting.

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