Warsaw, 7 January 1970. Assistant public prosecutor Zbigniew Grędziński, delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in Warsaw, heard the person named below as a witness, without an oath. The witness, warned about the criminal liability for giving false testimony, testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Piotr Zdzisław Zajączkowski |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Apolonia |
| Date and place of birth | 29 June 1897, in Warsaw |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, [...] |
| Occupation | turner |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relation to the parties | none |
During the occupation, I lived in Warsaw, at Wileńska Street 3, flat 10, along with my whole family. I remember that on 1 August 1944 at 3:00 pm, German tanks were passing along Targowa Street towards Ratuszowa Street. Around 2:30 pm, while the same tanks were still on Targowa Street, I was standing at a distance of about 50 meters from them and I personally observed that these tanks were manned by young German soldiers, dressed in black military uniforms and wearing leather tank helmets with skulls on them. I saw two tanks. After some time, after 3:00 pm, I heard, but didn’t see, a few explosions from hand grenades and the sounds of machine gun fire. These shots and explosions from grenades came from the side of the church standing in Praga on the corner of what is now Świerczewskiego and Targowa Streets. On the basis of this, I had no doubts that the machine gun fire and grenade explosions had come from those soldiers whom I had previously seen in the tanks on Targowa Street. At that time, I didn’t go out into the street, because the gate was closed. However, some other people whose names I don’t remember at the moment, told me that it was at this time that the Nazis who had been manning these tanks murdered lots of Poles at this church with machine guns and hand grenades. Based on my own eyewitness observations and what I heard (such as the sounds of gunfire and grenades) as well as other people’s stories, I have no doubt that the criminals at the church were the young German soldiers who had been manning the tanks that I had noticed beforehand.
On 3 August 1944, German soldiers, probably from the Wehrmacht, came to the building where I lived and demanded that all men under the age of 60 leave their flats and come down to the street. There were six men from the building at Wileńska 3, namely: myself, Antoni Ablewski, who currently lives somewhere in Warsaw, Antoni Ostrowski, currently residing in Warsaw at [...], Piotrowski (now deceased), Matusiak and Kubikowski, who are now dead, as well as Raczek, whom I lost touch with. So, it wasn’t six but seven of us who came out into the street.
The Germans told us to take some shovels with us, any that we happened to have. Then, the German soldiers led us over to the square in front of the church. On the square I noticed the corpses of men lying on the ground. I didn’t count those bodies, but I can estimate that there were ten or more of them.
I don’t know what nationality the victims of this crime were. One of the murdered was a Russian, because when he was being buried, a Russian woman came with a blanket and lamented the dead in Russian, so we came to the conclusion that he must have been a Russian or perhaps could have been an Orthodox Polish citizen.
I personally observed that most of the victims had badly damaged faces and so I came to the conclusion that they had been murdered by grenades.
One group of Poles dug the pits, and another carried the murdered on stretchers, while a third group buried the corpses. I was in the group tasked with burying the murdered people.
I don’t know if and who buried the other victims of this crime.
After the burial of the victims, the Nazis escorted us back to the building at Wileńska 3.
I have read this report personally and I hereby sign it as being truthful.