WŁADYSŁAW BUZE

Warsaw, 25 April 1945

Commission for the Investigation
of German Crimes in Warsaw

Władysław Buze, son of Jan and Maria née Nieska, born on 27 June 1885 in Ciechocinek, a painter foreman, resident at Stalowa Street 23, flat 3.

During the Warsaw Uprising, I lived at Chopina Street 8, flat 37. From 1 August to 5 October I stayed at home. That part of Chopina Street was free of Germans the entire time.

In the second half of August, I witnessed with my own eyes, while at Piusa XI Street 3, that two German tanks entered the street, trying to break through a barricade next to number 7. Insurgents besieging the Polish Telephone Company house [PASTA] on Piusa Street, next to the former German legation, were on the other side of the barricade.

That was at dawn (6:00–7:00 a.m.), I do not remember the date (three weeks after the start of the Uprising). The Germans drove 250 women, mostly young ones, in front of the tanks; they were supposed to dismantle the barricade so that the tanks could attack the insurgents. These women had been taken by the Germans from houses on Chocimska Street, and in the neighborhood of aleja Szucha, and driven in front of the tanks on pain of being executed. They were forced to wave white handkerchiefs. I saw a whole group of them running quickly in front of the tanks. At a certain moment, the insurgents started shouting to these women to escape sideways into the buildings. Hearing this, the women dispersed and hid in the surrounding houses. The insurgents started heavy shooting, and the tanks, shooting at them, retreated into Aleje Ujazdowskie.

Almost all the women were saved, a number were wounded, I did not see any dead. I talked with a few of them, but they did not give me any details about their abduction from their homes. Apart from me, this was seen by the residents of Piusa and Chopina streets.

I shall try to give a few surnames and current addresses of witnesses of this event, which I will provide separately.

In the middle of September, I was struck in my flat by an artillery shell in the head and legs, and lay at home in a grave state. During the evacuation after the capitulation of the insurgents, I was taken by the Red Cross to Krakow, where I stayed in a hospital for three months. Yesterday, I came back from Krakow to Praga in Warsaw, to my family, where I live. I have read this before signing. I am testifying in accordance with the truth.

The following certificate was shown:

State Hospital in Krakow, No. 15.225 states that Buze Wł., resident at 8 Chopina Street, was taken to the hospital on 25 October 1944, and discharged on 11 January 1945.

Magister Świderski

He stayed at Pawiak prison for two weeks in May 1944, arrested accidentally on Jasna Street in a cooperative. Cell number 270 in the Pawiak.

Magister Świderski