Warsaw, 13 February 1946. Associate Judge Antoni Krzętowski, delegated to the Warsaw Department of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without an oath. Having been advised of the obligation to speak the truth and of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Tadeusz Wilczyński |
| Parents’ names | Kazimierz and Konstancja |
| Date of birth | 11 December 1904 |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Radzymińska Street 46, flat 3 |
| Occupation | salesman |
| Education | two years of elementary school |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
I don’t know Franciszek Stanisław Konarowski. I have never been imprisoned in the Pawiak prison. I was detained by the Germans in a street roundup on 19 September 1940. We were kept in a horse-riding arena at Szwoleżerów Street for two days and then I was transported, together with others, to Auschwitz.
That transport consisted of 1,850 people. There were three hundred people from the Pawiak prison, and the rest were people from the roundup of 19 September 1940. The number I have given (1,850 people) may not be accurate – it is possible that it was larger or smaller by 100-150 people. We estimated that number later on in Auschwitz by comparing the lowest and highest numbers assigned to prisoners from our transport by the camp command.
All people captured in the above-mentioned roundup were transported to Auschwitz. The roundup was carried out both on the streets and inside buildings. I was captured when I was running out of my apartment at Radzymińska Street to the yard. I wanted to get to my shop, next to which there was a basement that could have served as a good shelter. We were transported by trucks, the so-called ‘shacks’, to the horse-riding arena. The shacks were large trucks with benches placed permanently on a platform, which were only available to Gestapo officers, and were used during street roundups or for transporting detainees for interrogations to Szucha Avenue.
The German who caught me during the roundup did not let me return to my apartment to pick up the necessary things, and when I told him that I had my identity documents with me, he told me that was enough and I had no reason to go back to the apartment, because I would be released within two hours. I did not believe him because in August (I believe it was the 12th) 1940, during the first roundup organized on a large scale, the Germans had said the same thing, and then everyone was transported to Auschwitz, just like us. Later on in Auschwitz, I met people from that first roundup.
As soon as they brought us to the horse-riding arena, we were registered. The registration actually took place in a building adjacent to the horse-riding arena, and afterwards we were escorted in groups of several dozen people to the arena. There were about one and a half thousand of us, and about 50 people were released on the next day on the basis of documents they had presented, which confirmed they were employed in German institutions.
In the horse-riding arena, we found ourselves on bare ground, partially soggy and dirty with horse manure. We received no additional clothes and we were kept there for two days in the clothes we had on when we had been detained. Throughout that time, we received one and a half loaves of bread, so in this respect we didn’t lack anything, but we were not given any warm food or even drinks.
The Gestapo carried out the roundup and supervised us in the horse-riding arena. Some of them carried strap whips with which they beat the detainees, often even for no reason. We had to sit on the bare ground all the time – we were not allowed to stand.
I stayed in Auschwitz for a year and half a month. On 9 October 1941, I was released, which was completely unexpected for me. It might have happened thanks to the efforts of my wife.