The nineteenth day of the trial, 30th of January 1947.
Witness Janina Falkowska, maiden name Pilatowski, 32 years old, living in Warsaw at Nowogrodzka Street 18a, no relationship to the parties, working at the jewellery workshop owned by her husband.
President: Is this a witness for the Prosecution?
Prosecutor Sawicki: Yes, Your Honor.
[President]: What is your father’s name?
Witness Fałkowska: Kazimierz Pilatowski.
Prosecutor: Can you tell us the details of his deportation?
Witness: In 1914 the City Board ordered my father, who owned a mechanic’s workshop, to build a cold storage in the Brühl Palace. Due to the difficulties in accessing installation fittings and with retaining his employees, he couldn’t finish it on time. He got a new deadline but failed to meet that one either. On 7th of January 1942, when the second deadline expired, he was arrested and taken to Daniłowiczowska Street. Five days later he was transported to Treblinka. Right after his arrest my sister and I, we took steps to release him. I found out that it was Leist who had ordered the arrest. We tried to reach him, but all our efforts were fruitless. We only managed to talk to a German office worker, Lange, who told us that Leist was so busy that he couldn’t even have given him our request for a meeting. Given our father’s ill-health and advanced age, we wanted to speed things up. We handed the case over to our attorney. The day before they took our father to Treblinka, a stranger came and told us that the next day our father, along with five other men among which, if I remember correctly, there were two tram drivers, was to be transported. Two days later, our attorney reached Leist, who told him, that it was an office worker, Hannicke, who had given him an arrest warrant to sign and that he himself had had no intention of arresting our father. He promised to release him and kept his promise, but the decision had to be validated by Standartenführer Snöbl and the authorities of the camp first. The camp commandant said that opening the camp gates for only one prisoner was just not worth it, so they released our father only after more than three weeks.
President: How long after your intervention was your father released?
Witness: After three weeks.
President: Did your attorney mentioned Hannicke to you and your sister?
Witness: Yes, he mentioned him.
President: That Leist said it was Hannicke who had given him an arrest warrant to sign?
Witness: Yes, that is what our attorney said. I was trying to reach Leist after his working hours, when he used to leave the Magistrate, but since so many Germans were around him, it turned out to be impossible to approach him.
President: Who ordered the cold storage from your father?
Witness: I don’t know. I guess it was the Polish Magistrate following instructions from the German Magistrate.
President: Was it Hannicke?
Witness: I don’t know that.
| Juror Jodłowski: | Who was your attorney? |
| Witness: | It was a German attorney, Eitner. |
| President: | There are no further questions, the witness is free to go. |