Warsaw, 15 December 1947. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false testimonies and of the wording of Art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stefan Kubiak |
| Names of parents | Tomasz and Julianna née Błażejak |
| Date of birth | 1 January 1900, Podzamcze, gmina Maciejowice, powiat Garwolin |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Elektoralna Street 2 |
| Education | seven grades of elementary school |
| Occupation | caretaker in the Ministry of Provisions |
| State and national affiliation | Polish |
During the Warsaw Uprising I lived in Elektoralna Street 2. German soldiers came to our house for the first time on 6 August 1944, selecting a group of three hundred men to take down barricades. Almost everyone from this group died under fire. Mieczysław Dymitrowski (residing at Elektoralna Street 2) survived.
On 6 August 1944, I went to the Ministry of Treasury in Bankowy Square together with my family. On 13 August 1944 in the morning, German soldiers with letters SD on the sleeves of their uniforms and “Ukrainians” burst into the building. All residents were ordered to get out of buildings. Around two hundred people went out, men were separated from women, and then men were put in groups of fifty and ordered to give away their valuables under the pain of death.
The first group of fifty men and a group of women were sent to Wolska Street, the second group of men (which I was in) were taken over by the gendarmerie (whom I recognized due to the lighter colour of their uniforms and high boots).
We were brought to the vicinity of Charles Borromeo Church, where we cleaned up debris near a pool on a square between the church and Elektoralna Street. In Bankowy Square, I saw houses burning; judging by the spreading of the flames, they had been freshly set on fire. Near the church, some of the houses were burning down. After a few hours, a group of workers from the Verbrennungskommando under SD escort came from the direction of Żelaznej Bramy Square. In that group I recognized an acquaintance, Wacław Dziewulski (residing at Leszno Street, on the corner of Orla Street).
The gendarmerie handed our group over to the SD-men escorting the Verbrennungskommando group. We were ordered to walk along Chłodna and Wolska Streets to the Jewish Hospital in Wolska Street, between Karolkowa and Młynarska Streets. Houses there were empty, we were herded into the second yard, and the Verbrennungskommando group was taken to the third yard. My German is not very good, but whispers started in our group that the SD-men were talking about executing us. So I approached Dziewulski in the hospital yard asking him for help. Upon his intervention, the lieutenant in charge of the SD squadron appointed me to the Verbrennungskommando group.
I don’t know the name of the lieutenant. He was a man of average height, dark blond hair, oval, florid face and blurry eyes. After a while I heard shots from the second yard. When the shots died away, the Verbrennungskommando was ordered to burn the bodies of the executed people. I then recognized the body of a tenant from the house at Elektoralna Street 2, Wiess, and the body of his son. Judging by the gunshot wounds, they were executed sitting.
I heard from the workers from my group that they made it possible for one man, who was in the executed group but survived, to hide in the basement.
I don’t know the name of the man who survived the execution.
We put timber beams in the middle of the yard, we threw the corpses and belongings of the executed people on it, we poured some liquid on them (petrol, judging by the smell) brought by the Verbrennungskommando and we set the pile on fire. Then our Verbrennungskommando group, numbering around fifty people, was herded to Sokołowska Street, to a red building, and quartered on the top floor. The Gestapo was stationed across from our building.
I don’t know the names of the Gestapo and SD men in charge of the Verbrennungskommando.
On the following day, our group was employed demolishing barricades, and from then on we were interchangeably used either to burn corpses or to take down barricades.
Together with our group, we burnt the bodies of around one hundred persons – men, women, and children – behind the tramway depot near the school.
On the grounds of the Municipal Public Transport Company, we burnt from thirty to forty bodies, mostly men.
On the grounds of the Roesler School in Chłodna Street 33, we burnt bodies four or five times. Each time these were fresh corpses, usually from fifteen to twenty of them.
When I was staying in Sokołowska street I saw that, having been examined by the Gestapo, groups of men were loaded onto roofed trucks and driven in the direction of Chłodna Street. After I saw such a car, we were always ordered to burn corpses in the school in Chłodna Street. This was in the second half of August 1944.
Our group collected corpses for burning that were scatted in the streets, in gardens and houses in Chłodna Street, in Żytnia Street, and in other streets. In that area I saw people hanged and shot in their beds.
Outside of the Wola district, our group also burnt corpses in the Old Town and in the adjacent areas. As to places where we burnt the bodies, I can remember the following: the yard of the opera house – Teatralny Square; we burnt over one hundred corpses there on one pile, mostly men, there were only a few women. We collected these corpses from the opera, as well as from the adjacent streets, e.g. Trębacka Street. I myself was taking care of the corpses from the opera house yard, I did not go inside the building.
That was after 20 August 1944, I don’t recall the exact date.
In the Saxon Garden, in back of the Zamoyski Palace, we burnt ten bodies, including three women. I got the impression that these were civilians who had been torn away from an evacuation column, since various bundles were lying around them.
I am unable to indicate the exact date of this burning. Presumably, this was around 20 August 1944. During the same period, that is around 20 August 1944, we burnt five corpses in the yard of the house at Przechodnia Street 5. These were mostly male corpses in a state of decomposition. It was impossible to determine the cause of death due to the decomposition, but the characteristic concentration of bodies in one place suggested that an execution had taken place there.
Also around 20 August 1944 we removed corpses of about eight men from the corridor of the Luxemburg Gallery. The corpses had been thrown into the basements of the Luxemburg Gallery and covered with soil.
During the time when there was still fighting in the Old Town, presumably in mid-August, I don’t remember the exact date, we burnt the bodies of twelve men in one of the shops in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, between Trębacka and Miodowa Street. Judging by the concentration of bodies with gunshot wounds, an execution was organized there.
In the area of the Old Town proper, the Verbrennungskommando division started its work couple of days after the fall of the uprising in this district, that is around 5 September 1944. The first burning took place within the area of the demolished Saint John Cathedral, in the side entrance from Świętojańska Street. We burnt the corpses of around ten men and women there. The bodies were decomposed, it was impossible to say whether they had gunshot wounds.
In the first ten days of September 1944, I don’t remember the exact date, we burnt corpses in the following locations in the Old Town:
In the vicinity of Świętojańska Street – around ten decomposing corpses; On the property of the Warsaw Charity Organization [Warszawskie Towarzystwo Dobroczynności] in Freta Street 10. The escort brought us onto the property from the side of Stara Street. By a wall of the Warsaw Charity Organization, still in Stara Street, lay eight young people (six men and two women), all badly wounded. The SD-men who were escorting us told us to back away and executed the wounded. I know that they begged for their lives. Right after the execution, we brought the corpses to the Warsaw Charity Organization courtyard near the statue of Mother Mary, and we burnt them there.
In the former Ministry of Justice in Długa Street 7, we burnt a considerable number of corpses brought to the yard. The bodies were partially burnt, we collected them from the entire property.
I don’t recall any more corpse-burning operations in the Old Town. Wacław Dziewulski, residing in Warsaw, Leszno Street 13, whom I have already mentioned, took part in all of the corpse-burning operations together with the other members of the Verbrennungskommando.
I don’t know the names of the SD-men from the Verbrennungskommando, I only recall that one of them said that he was from the Piotrków area, where he supposedly had some land property.
At that the report was concluded.