JANINA KORZENIOWSKA

Warsaw, 14 March 1946. Judge Stanisław Rybiński, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness, who then testified as follows:


Name and surname Janina Korzeniowska née Sadowska
Date of birth 24 July 1898
Names of parents Ignacy and Stanisława née Staniszewska
Occupation saleswoman
Education four years of private boarding school
Place of residence Warsaw, Górczewska Street 139, flat 20
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I have come to the office of the Commission as a result of the announcement published in the daily newspapers. I am presenting my recognition card No. 7939 (presented).

I lived where I live now for the entire duration of the war. My brother, Aleksander Sadowski, lived close to me, at Długosza Street 29, flat 19, with his common law wife, Maria Misiak, who still lives in the flat.

My brother, Aleksander Sadowski, was born in 1893, graduated from elementary school and then from vocational school, and was a metal turner. Until November or December 1943, he worked for the Ziefeldt company in a factory on Wolność Street. He quit his job, as far as I know, because he belonged to a political organization and was uncovered. My brother did not confess this to me, but told me that as of now his name was Władysław Staniszewski and to call him by that name only. Having stopped work at the factory, he was forced to stay in hiding over the next five to six weeks; he rarely stayed in his own house, showing up from time to time for a short visit.

On the night from 13 to 14 January 1944, when he was visiting his common law wife in their flat and was already asleep, four Gestapo agents arrived, of whom two were in military uniforms and two in civilian clothing.

I was not present there at the time and know about this only from Maria Misiak’s account.

The Gestapo agents ordered my brother to dress warmly and assured him that they would arrest him, but that he would be able to return home in two days, meanwhile they had to take him with them for the time being. My brother was arrested as Władysław Staniszewski. Although the Gestapo men announced that he was suspected of storing weapons, they did not search the flat. I learned about my brother’s arrest the next day.

Together with Maria Misiak we made efforts to secure his release. Maria Misiak, who repeatedly went to the Gestapo HQ, received assurances that my brother, Władysław Staniszewski, would be set free within a couple of days, and then that he would soon be deported. Ten days passed in this way until notices appeared throughout the city informing that more than 29 men had been executed on 23 or 24 January 1944. My brother’s name and surname, Władysław Staniszewski, was on the notice among those of the executed. Apparently, they had not discovered his real name at the Gestapo HQ.

Having read the notices with the names of the executed, where my brother was listed under number 19, we, Maria Misiak and I, did not learn anything more about my brother’s fate, nor did we receive any other message. We have only learned that my acquaintance, Piotr Chmurzyński, who lived at Złota Street 31 before the Uprising (I don’t know where he lives now) had learned from one of his acquaintances, whose names or address I don’t know, that he [the said acquaintance], had been present at the former Ministry of Justice on Długa Street, corner of Kilińskiego Street, when a public execution took place along the wall of that building on the of Kilińskiego Street side. That individual, unknown to me, was said to have seen the moment of the execution through the window, when the convicts were led out of the cars, and noticed my brother among those being led to the execution, dressed in denim trousers, a navy blue pullover and socks, while the others walked barefoot.

This is what my brother had worn when the agents took him from the house. He was told to dress warmly and to take food for two days. My brother then put on navy blue denim trousers under other trousers.

In 1944, on 29 August, during the Warsaw Uprising, my other brother, Mieczysław Sadowski, was killed. He was killed by bullets from a machine gun which came through the window into his flat at Chmielna Street 94. My brother, Mieczysław, was born on 6 February 1882.

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