Warsaw, 24 February 1946. Judge St. Rybiński, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Michał Kostyra |
| Age | 45 years old |
| Names of parents | son of Józef and Agnieszka |
| Occupation | mechanic’s assistant at the Karol and Maria Hospital |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Żytnia Street 32a, flat 1 |
In 1943, I was twice a witness of public executions of Poles conducted by German gendarmes. I watched one such execution for the first time on Aleje Jerozolimskie, behind the Polonia hotel. It was the second public execution in Warsaw. The first, as far as I know, which I did not witness, took place on aleja Niepodległości. I cannot give the date of the execution I watched on Aleje Jerozolimskie because I don’t remember it.
That day, I arrived at Aleje Jerozolimskie by tram. I had barely stepped off the tram when gendarmes chased me down the street and rushed me into the gate of one of the houses. I escaped to the second floor and hid in a private flat, fearing that I would be arrested.
Through the window of the flat I saw that gendarmes had surrounded a place on the street from which the public was removed, and fired machine guns at the victims of the execution, who were not tied, did not have bands over their eyes and started fleeing. As a result of a machine gun series, all those escaping fell dead. They wore their own clothes.
There were about ten victims. The gendarmes loaded the dead into a buda [lit. kennel] lorry and drove off. The execution took place between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. A couple of days later, through the window of my own flat (I lived at Młynarska Street 14 at the time) I saw German gendarmes throw two corpses of men in clothes into a buda lorry at the Wola station city tram stop. I had heard a volley of shots beforehand. It was also between noon and 1:00 p.m.
I don’t know how many victims fell in that execution. I only saw two dead.
I don’t know who was shot in either of the executions.
I only know that my acquaintance, Władysław Kozłowski, a baker, was shot dead at the age of over 40 in the first execution on aleja Niepodległości, which I did not witness. He lived at Grzybowska Street 72, flat 142. A few days before the execution, he was taken from his home by gendarmes.
I don’t know the reason for his arrest. The house where Kozłowski lived was later demolished. Kozłowski was single and was a subtenant of another family.
The report was read out.