CZESŁAW KRULISZ

Warsaw, 19 April 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Czesław Władysław Krulisz
Parents’ names Zygmunt and Anna, née Repaklesy
Date of birth 14 August 1912 in Sękowa, commune of Gorlice
Religion Roman Catholic
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Education two legal courses
Profession head of personnel at the Waterworks and Sewage Authority

During the Warsaw Uprising I resided at Solec Street 6 in Warsaw, and after a German tank burned this building down on 3 August, at Idzikowskiego Street 5/7.

On 17 August at 17.00 a detachment of German SS men and “Ukrainians” entered the premises of our building from the direction of Czerniakowska Street and building number 3. All of the residents were led out of the building and, along the way, more or less every ten metres, the “Ukrainians” would rob the members of our group of their valuables. We were marched to the Batory secondary school at Łazienkowska Street, where we found groups of civilians ejected from other houses in Powiśle. From the Batory secondary school we were led along Agrykola Street into aleja Szucha. The group of women and children was taken to the premises at Litewska Street 14, while the men were detained at aleja Szucha 25. The next day, an SS man selected more than ten young men – as I learned later, for labour. After a while I was included in a group of approximately 20 men. The others – the elderly and women, as I was later informed – were transported to a transit camp in Pruszków.

My group was led to the house at Litewska Street 14. The camp was managed by the technical police, and the camp commandant was police sergeant Waluga (German Technical Police). Amongst the prisoners were Ratajczyk, Jan Szewczyk and Jakub Dawidowicz. I don’t remember the others. There were more than 150 prisoners. The camp inmates were used for various types of work.

On 6 October a group of some 40 prisoners, myself included, was taken to Powiśle, where some of us were allocated to digging trenches at Czerniakowska Street 124, while approximately 15 people were marched off to bury bodies in the square of Zagórna, Solec, Szara, and Czerniakowska streets. On the first day I dug trenches, while on the second or third I was on the burial detail. At Idzikowskiego Street, opposite no. 5/7, I found a few dozen male and female bodies, all civilians, with grenade wounds. We buried them next to where they lay. I remember being told (I don’t now remember by whom) that when this area was captured by the Germans, they threw hand grenades at the people gathered in the cellars.

I also buried a few bodies lying in ones and twos.

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