MIECZYSŁAW PIETRASZEK

Warsaw, 6 October 1949. Irena Skonieczna (MA), acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Mieczysław Pietraszek
Date and place of birth 20 August 1889 in Warsaw
Names of parents Teofil and Maria, née Regulska
Occupation of the father clerk
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education university
Occupation engineer
Place of residence Warsaw, Idzikowskiego Street 1
Criminal record none

From 1 to 13 August 1944 I was hiding in the building of the fire service at Polna Street 1. During that period I witnessed how, with the participation of troops from Kamiński’s division (I am absolutely sure it was that division, as a pre-war officer I was interested in such things), the Germans were throwing out residents from the houses on the streets adjacent to Unii Square. I saw, therefore, the residents of the houses at Marszałkowska Street 2, 1, and 4 being led partly to aleja Szucha and Puławska Street in the direction of Rakowiecka Street, and also people taken from the houses at Bagatela Street 15 and the corner of aleja Szucha and Unii Square. Sometimes the civilians were gathered at a square near the fire service, but nobody was executed there during my stay in that building. Apart from me, a few other people were hiding in the building of the fire service, including people who had escaped from aleja Szucha. Of these I know Professor Józef Plebański, whose address I will presently submit, and Professor Czaplicki.

On 13 August I left with a column of laborers and went to Belwederska Street. The truck stopped by the Bruhnwerke factory. I jumped out and mingled with the group of laborers who were standing nearby. From there I escaped to Promenada Street, where I hid in the basement of the Popławski factory. On the night of 14/15 August I left the factory and got through to my house at Idzikowskiego Street 1.

On a late evening in the first half of September 1944, a well-armed auxiliary company [of the Home Army] from Kabacki Forest got through to Piłsudski fort. On the following day at noon, the middle casemates in which the company had spent the night were bombed by Stukas. As a result, almost the entire company perished under the rubble.

Two houses about the Piłsudski fort: mine (Idzikowskiego Street 1) and the house at Obserwatorów Street 2. From the first day of the uprising, some 30 people were living in my house. None of them died during the uprising. Therefore, I am certain that the rumor stating that the civilians from the neighboring houses had been herded into the Piłsudski fort and bombed is entirely false. I know, however, that Babil, a pre-war guard, was killed along with his family during the bombardment of the fort at the beginning of September. They lived in a small house on Idzikowskiego Street and used to seek shelter in the casemates during intense shelling.

As for other German crimes, I heard that on the day of the surrender, a unit of some 190 soldiers from the Baszta battle group was poisoned in the sewer leading from Szustra Street to Aleje Ujazdowskie near Wilcza Street. Only some 16 men managed to survive and get out to Aleje Ujazdowskie.

At this the report was concluded and read out.