Warsaw, 13 April 1946. Examining Judge Halina Wereńko, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:
Name and surname Jan Zielski
| Parents’ names | Jakub and Katarzyna, née Gruszecka |
| Date of birth | 10 May 1885, in Storożyniec, Bukowina |
| Occupation | President of the Administrative and Housing Cooperative |
| Education | faculty of law at the University of Czerniowce, partially in Vienna |
| Place of residence | Lipska Street 14, flat 6 (Saska Kępa) |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
Before the War, I worked at the RWD (Experimental Aviation Workshops) as a personnel manager. Following the outbreak of hostilities, I was ordered to proceed to Lublin, where in the rank of lieutenant-colonel I worked on the staff of colonel Ocetniewicz. Towards the end of September 1939, having changed into civilian clothes, I was in the township of Łaszczów in the Lublin county, looking for my private belongings (hidden during the War) when I laid myself open to the accusation that I was inciting people in areas that had already been occupied by the Germans not to hand over their weapons. In actual fact, I was urging the local residents not to hand over their weapons and the men to withdraw from the area occupied by the Germans within the borders of the communal office in Łaszczów. Some Ukrainian reported me to the German authorities, in consequence of which I was arrested and, after nine days, taken to Użyczyn [Wożuczyn?], where the German staff was located. I was in danger of being executed. A local priest, Maj, and a landowner – whose surname I do not recall – intervened on my behalf with a higher-ranking German officer who had taken up residence at the presbytery. Following their intervention – even though a death sentence had been passed against me after the trial – I was released and proceeded to Zamość, and from there to Warsaw. I arrived at my flat at Puławska Street 28, from where in October 1940 I was evicted to Pańska Street 9. While still residing at Puławska Street, I earned a living by doing translations, for I have a good grasp of German. I received a license for running a translation and legal advice office.
From 1942 I became involved in an underground organization whose objective was fighting the Germans, in which I received the pseudonym “Srogi.” My entire family was involved, too.
My older son, Kazimierz Tadeusz Franciszek Zielski (born 5 September 1910), an electrical engineer and instructor at the transmitter station in Lwów, was forced to leave Lwów due to his conspiratorial activities, moving to Warsaw, where he first worked at the Philips factory, and then in another company. He changed his surname on several occasions. His pseudonym was “Władysław Winnicki” and he was the commander of a unit tasked with rescuing prisoners from Pawiak. After some time, for reasons of security, he took up residence in Międzylesie, where in February 1943, during a sweeping operation against him and his unit, he was arrested together with 160 subordinates. My son was taken to the camp in Stutthof, where he was executed in March 1945 under the name of Tadeusz Zieliński, prisoner no. 36049.
My second son, Mieczysław Zielski, pseudonym “Dzidek,” an officer cadet, took part in the Uprising of 1944 in Warsaw and perished on 16 September.
My wife, Henryka, née Stachowska, who currently lives with me at the same address, took part in the Warsaw Uprising as the head of a first-aid post in Służew.
While running the legal advice office during the German occupation I had the opportunity – since I had an extensive clientèle – of hiding or lodging many people who were trying to escape the Germans. In this way the artist and sculptor Maria Boniecki, who was in hiding and who currently lives in France, resided at my flat for a year, from 1943 to 1944, although from time to time he would spend the night at the residences of other friends. Similarly, agricultural engineer Korybut Daszyńska “Lela,” a member of an underground organization whose objective was fighting the Germans, also hid at my flat, spending the night there from time to time during the period 1943 – 1944. Furthermore, Leon Marszałek, who worked for the Codification Commission of the Underground Polish State, spent every night over a period of one and a half years at my flat. From 1942 he would spend every night at my flat. He was later arrested and imprisoned in Pawiak for six weeks in 1943, in June or July. My intervention made it possible to free him through Pętrowski, the plenipotentiary of Potocki and Niemczyk, a commissar of “Społem” and a German by descent. Currently Marszałek is the chief signing clerk and plenipotentiary of “Społem” in Łódź. In the end, while hiding in my flat, Marszałek lived here with his wife and child. I also succeeded in freeing Irena Hrehorowicz, who presently works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and who had been arrested by the Germans as a Jewess, due to her external physical similarity to a Jewess. Apart from those mentioned above, I also accommodated and hid a number of other people. I was in touch with the President of the Barristers’ Council, Gruber, who commissioned me to officially participate in a number of cases at the summary and special (military) court (Sonder Gericht).
On the morning of 1 August 1944, having been informed that the Uprising would break out, I walked my wife to the position at Rakowiecka Street, while I myself went to the prison – located on the same street – in order to secure the release of five of my clients, for whom I had obtained release warrants from the German superior district attorney. The matter concerned two clients accused of being of Jewish descent, and also political prisoners. In any case, the release warrants provided by the superior district attorney were processed immediately in the normal course of business. At the time the chief director of the prison was a German counselor, whose surname I don’t know, while his deputy was one Hitzinger. They informed me that on that very day (1 August 1944) Fischer had issued an order to the effect that no prisoners were to be released. This also applied to prisoners who had completed their sentences. I appealed by telephone to the Abteilung Justitz, where I was told the same thing. I then went to the senior commissar of the prison, one Szperlak, who was of Polish descent and who tried to help me – he took the release warrant and declared that when the Germans (prison officials) left, he would carry out the release. Incidentally, he was in possession of erroneous information to the effect that the Uprising would not break out that day, that it had been postponed. I therefore stopped by at Szperlak’s flat.
At 5.00 p.m. the shooting started. I was in the company of the court secretary from Grójec, who had come concerning clients who were due to be released, and his deputy,
a Volksdeutscher by the surname of Jabłoński. The neighboring house had been occupied by Poles, who in all probability were supposed to attack the opposite house, the so-called Stauferkaserne. We all went down to the basement of the house in which Szperlak lived. A Polish officer came to the basement twice, and during his second visit he summoned three Volksdeutscher, whom he took with him. During this time the Volksdeutscher Jabłoński handed over his identity card to the court secretary from Grójec, for he was afraid of the Poles. After a while two Germans, a Gestapo man in civilian clothes and an SS man in uniform, entered the basement. All those present, numbering some 300 people, with the majority being women with children, were ordered to come outside. During this time Jabłoński, who – as it turned out – did not know German, asked me to translate into German that he had hid his Volksdeutscher identity card in the basement. The German went with him to the basement but, since Jabłoński did not know where his colleague had hidden the identity card, and also because Jabłoński did not know German, the gendarme shot him. The Germans led the others from the group to the Stauferkaserne bunker, where they handed out sweets to the children – photographing the event as it happened. On the next day, 2 August, our group was led out into the courtyard. There the women were arranged near the left wing of the building, and subsequently released, while the men were placed near the right wing. Machine guns had been set up in the middle of the courtyard. The men were made to stand facing the wall, and when anyone tried to look over his shoulder, he would be hit with a rifle butt. We were certain that we would be executed. We stood like this for five hours. During this time successive groups of people were brought into the courtyard – as I later learned, they were mainly residents of the neighboring houses from Rakowiecka Street, which were subsequently burned down. The women were separated from the men, who were added to our group standing by the wall. The women were taken down into the basement, and then released. After five hours we were segregated on the basis of our identity cards, and then divided into three groups, although the criteria for this were unknown to me.
The group in which I found myself, numbering 180 people, was led into a hall in which we stayed the night. Looking through the window in the evening I saw a group of female nurses in white gowns, headed by a doctor and carrying the Red Cross flag, being led into the courtyard. I counted 18 pairs of people. The column marched along the street, but when it reached the gate, the machine guns located on the roof of the right wing opened fire. All of the nurses and the physician fell down dead.
I don’t know from which hospital they had come. I would speculate that they were the personnel of the insurgent hospital in Mokotów. Following this execution the Germans selected 10 young people from our hall and took them to an unknown location. On 3 August the Germans also selected one or two young people – none of them returned. On the morning of 4 August the hall in which I was detained was visited by the Obersturmführer (commander) of the barracks, the most senior SS man, together with his staff (an officer and a non-commissioned officer), and informed us in German – his message was translated by an interpreter – that since a few kamerads had perished, 30 civilian Polish men must also die; the non-commissioned officers selected 12 men to dig the graves, and 30 to be executed. They selected both the young and the old, at random.
I heard the sounds of the execution shortly after they were marched off. I don’t know the surnames of any of the people who were with me in the hall. The execution took place in the garden under the window of the barracks, from the side of the Higher Trade School. There were graves there, but I don’t know whether they have been recently exhumed. As I heard, the execution took place in three stages. The non-commissioned officer – one of the men who had selected the victims – remained in the hall and watched our faces.
On 5 August we received food for the first time – one loaf of bread for 10 people. Apart from the sounds of the abovementioned execution, we did not hear any other salvoes or bursts of gunfire. On the same day (5 August) the Germans started taking us for hard and difficult work. I was sent to load vegetables onto a truck. I also loaded ammunition. On 6 August we were once again visited by the Obersturmführer with his deputy and non-commissioned officers, who declared that a German patrol had been shot at near Narbutta Street, and therefore all the men from Narbutta Street would be executed within half an hour. Half an hour later another execution took place opposite our windows, by the same wall that we had stood against for five hours on 2 August. The Germans used six bursts of machine gun fire during the execution.
I cannot say how many people were shot. They stood along the entire wall, but I was unable to count them.
New groups were brought to the barracks every day. Luckily, the composition of our hall changed little, and we were only taken in groups for work. On 8 August the Obersturmführer and his entourage visited our hall yet again, declaring that a few Germans had fallen once more, and therefore a larger number of people had to be selected for execution. The non- commissioned officers began the selection. At that moment a young lad, some 25 – 30 years of age, stepped forward and declared that he alone wanted to die for all of us. The non-commissioned officer pushed him aside, mumbling under his breath that he was crazy, but the lad repeated his request, and after being brushed aside yet again, he requested only that the commander shoot him himself. To which the non-commissioned officer replied that everyone would die, all for one, and not one for all. The interpreter interrupted and together with the non-commissioned officer they talked with the commander, after which they declared that for this day everyone’s life was spared. Towards the evening of 8 August I was summoned by an SS man and led to the basement, where I was supposed to stack bread. The SS man gave me a loaf of bread and some tobacco, and then said that on that night everyone would be executed, but that he would save me. The Obersturmführer then approached, to whom at my request the commander of the watch reported that I had requested a hearing. He granted me a hearing for 10.00 a.m. the next day. The sentry then took me to the hall, where I informed everybody that an execution would take place at night. Thus we waited to be taken to our execution until 4.00 a.m. Our nerves were at the breaking point. Later we just kept watch in turn. I would like to stress that the hall was so crowded that we could not all lie down at once, and therefore some of us had to remain standing. We were woken up at 6.00 a.m., and at 7.00 led to the toilet in pairs. The groups were marched off to work, but I did not go – I waited for the hearing, to which I was not taken. Only at 4.00 p.m. did the Obersturmführer arrive with his entourage, declaring that men over 60 years of age were to step forward. The group that did step forward (approximately 20 or so people) was led out into the courtyard, where their wartime identity cards were checked. I was not yet 60 years old, but for whatever reason I was not taken back to the hall. Next the Germans twice read out Bór-Komorowski’s order calling upon the insurgents to abandon their positions and go home, threatening those who disobeyed with death by firing squad. This order was, of course, a fake.
I feel obliged to add that when I was in the barracks, none of the men in our hall were transported to the transit camp in Pruszków. I did however hear that there was a hall on the first floor from which men were deported. Which men and to where, I do not know.
To return to the chronological course of events. It was then announced that older people would be released according to the list. My surname was not on the list, but still I managed to escape. Opposite the barracks, at the corner of Kazimierzowska Street, there was the chemist’s shop of Mr. Bielecki, who was with me in the same hall. Although he was thirty or so years of age, he was released along with me. I went to his house, where I washed and had a shave, after which he invited me to supper. I noticed that the supper was lavish, with alcoholic drinks. After a while some SS-men arrived at the party. I later learned that Bielecki’s wife was a friend of the Obersturmführer, and that is why he was freed. Bielecki is currently in Warsaw, but I don’t know where he resides. The building in which he lived is now in ruins.
On the day when I left, the Germans permitted the families of the men detained in the barracks to bring them lunches. During this time, one of the detainees – but in another hall – was an engineer who currently works at the Warsaw Reconstruction Bureau (Chocimska Street), one Grzelski. The engineer remained there and was subsequently deported to Germany, but managed to return. While in the barracks, he was employed in the packing of foodstuffs, and consequently his conditions were better. I don’t remember the surnames of the other men who were detained at the barracks at the time.
After I left the barracks I lost track of what went on there, for from Bielecki’s house I went to Szperlak’s flat, and from there – keeping my arms raised – I proceeded to aleja Niepodległości. The avenue was completely empty, and a young boy led me to Mokotów, where I submitted a report and, after receiving a uniform, started working on the staff, serving as deputy quartermaster until the very end, that is 26 September 1944. Following the capitulation, the commander of Mokotów, Kowal, proceeded through the sewers to the Śródmieście district, while I discarded my uniform and – as a civilian – went to the “Społem” building, from which I was transported to the Pruszków transit camp, where I was classified as sick by Polish doctors and allocated to Barrack 1, from which I escaped on a cart taking nuns to the township of Pruszków.
The report was read out.