Słupsk, 19 March 1967
Leopold Pacocha
22 Lipca Street 28, flat 5
Słupsk
To the Editor
of the ‘Polish Courier’
Hibnera Street, Warsaw,
I kindly ask if any of the residents of Wileńska Street 5 in Praga have given any information about the crime committed at the church in Praga on the first day of the Warsaw Uprising, from 5:00 pm until 6:00 pm, at which time 35 people were shot, and on the third day of the uprising at 3:00 pm when they were buried in the vicinity of the Orthodox church in the presence of a priest from the same church.
I describe this, because twenty years have passed and I have read the Warsaw press and the journal published by the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy [ZBoWiD] ‘Za Wolność i Lud’ [‘For Freedom and the People’], and for so many years there was never any mention of this crime. The crime was committed by the Gestapo on thirty-five young people and I think it is the duty of every Polish citizen to reveal the crimes committed by the Germans during the occupation.
On the third day of the uprising, some Germans started banging on the gate of our building at Wileńska Street 5. The concierge, before opening the gate, gave a sign so that the men living in this building could hide. Then he went to the gate and opened it. Eight Gestapo men and five German soldiers with automatic weapons entered the courtyard. One of them shouted in Polish: ‘All men go out into the yard, because whoever doesn’t come out will be shot’. Upon this announcement, I went into the yard with my son Franciszek and a few neighbors from this building. Seven of us were chosen. We were ordered to stand against the wall with our hands raised, and our concierge was ordered to bring shovels and an ax within five minutes. The concierge brought five shovels, an ax and a coal shovel. The German who spoke Polish told us to take these tools and said to us: ‘You, Polish bandits, you won’t be coming back here, you killed one of our officers two days ago at your gate.’ Our wives and the women who lived in the block began to cry.
The Germans took us and led us to the area of the Orthodox church’s fence, where there were already about ten German officers and an Orthodox priest among them from that church. The German who spoke Polish indicated where we were to dig a pit 20 m long and 3 m wide and ordered us to dig it to a depth of one meter within an hour.
After digging this hole, they led us from the church, about a hundred meters—there were many murdered people lying there, one on top of the other, covered with blood. They told us to carry the murdered people over to the dug-out pit. Before putting them in the bottom they ordered us to make a search, and the German who spoke Polish took any documents found and read their names and place of origin, and the German officer noted these down in his notebook together with the Orthodox priest. As I recall, they were young people between the ages of 20 and 25. They came mainly from the areas of Pinsk, Baranavichy, Dubno and Równe. 35 people had been murdered. The pit was too small. We were ordered to stack the murdered on top of each other in several rows. I noticed a short firearm in the back trouser pocket of one of the murdered men, which the Germans didn’t see and didn’t take.
After putting all those murdered into the pit and burying them, one of the German officers called us to gather round, and the Orthodox priest had some spirits in a jar and told us to hold out our hands so that he could pour alcohol on them to wash away the blood of the dead. After washing our hands, the German officer ordered us to be taken back to the place where we had come from. The same escort brought us to the gate of our building. The German who spoke Polish addressed us: ‘You, Polish bandits, you wanted some Russians, you’re lucky that my major let you live, but you won’t get away with it, in a few days we will take you all...’ The concierge opened the gate and let us in, and they left.
I cannot describe the joy that our families felt when they saw us alive.
I should mention that the young people murdered by the Germans came from the transportation point to Germany, which was on the other side of the Orthodox church.
I describe the above case of mass murder as an eyewitness because I lived in Warsaw at Wileńska Street 5, and along with my family I lodged in one room at Mr. Dąbrowski’s from 1939 until our deportation from Praga. On the first day of the uprising, at 5:00 pm, the Gestapo located in the Railway Directorate opened fire, going down Wileńska Street, on the windows of our building, where Mr. Dąbrowski’s sister was killed. She was 70 years old at the time. She was the first victim of the war in our block, or even in my apartment. She was buried in our yard.
While describing the above events, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to our concierge from Wileńska Street 5 for his attitude as a good citizen, for repeatedly putting his life in jeopardy and for saving me and all the tenants from certain death throughout the occupation. He protected [us] from the round-ups and various searches as far as he possibly could. He deserves all the more credit since our building was inhabited by politically aligned as well as non-aligned people, Jews in hiding, and Russian prisoners who had escaped from German captivity, and two deserters from the German army, Poles from Silesia. Our concierge knew that we had a radio in apartment no. 39 at Kazimierz Pizła’s place, and he knew that his brother-in-law, a tram worker, an old communist, brought us secret newspapers and all kinds of news. Thanks to our concierge—until the deportation from Praga—no one was arrested and the Gestapo failed to uncover our home, and the hundred families living there. I wish the concierge full health and prosperity in his future work.
I believe that it is our duty, the duty of all those who survived the war, to uncover all the brutalities committed by the Germans against the Poles and other nationalities, so that the murderers may be brought to justice.
Leopold Pacocha
The addresses of witnesses who are still alive:
The former concierge, Stanisław Parapura, Wileńska Street 5, flat 25
His son, Mieczysław Parapura, Środkowa Street 11, flat 23
Zygmunt Rzeźnicki, Wileńska Street 5, flat 41
Franciszek Krakowski, currently residing on Grochowska Street, although I don’t know at
which number.