On 1 June 1946 in Warsaw, Deputy Prosecutor Zofia Rudziewicz interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Wiktor Lampe |
| Date of birth | 10 March 1875 |
| Names of parents | Karol and Emilia |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Hoża Street 74, flat 3 |
| Place of birth | Warsaw |
| Religious affiliation | Protestant of the Augsburg Confession |
| Occupation | professor at the University of Warsaw |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
| Criminal record | none |
| Education | University of Bern, Switzerland |
I was elected a member of the University of Warsaw Senate for the year 1939/1940 as the dean of the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty. Most of the members of the senate at that time, including Rector Jerzy Modrakowski and Professor Stefan Mazurkiewicz, are now dead.
Most of scientific facilities at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 26/28 were completely destroyed during the military operations in 1939. After the Germans entered, they captured the university campus, and in the part where Auditorium Maximum is located (behind the Library building), they positioned a police delegation; over time they quartered police and military troops in other parts of the campus as well.
I am unable to say who had ordered this, since I lived far away in Mokotów, and I only rarely came to the university; it was only possible to enter the campus on the basis of passes, which were issued by German guards.
After the Germans entered, there were no more lectures. Rector Modrakowski notified all professors that due to lack of funding professors would not receive remuneration, and thus could apply for indeterminate leaves.
I don’t know who ordered the closing of the university, since we were not notified about this by the rector officially.
After the establishment of the civil administration in the General Government [Generalne Gubernatorstwo], the Germans appointed a Liquidation Committee, composed of officers of the former Ministry of Education, for the purpose of liquidating any and all matters connected with the University of Warsaw and probably of other higher education institutions as well.
The Committee had the following German name: Abwicklungsstelle für das Polnische Kulturministerium. It was supervised by Major Tzschaschel, who officially had the title of Leiter der Abteilung Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung des Distriktes Warschau.
In connection with the examinations for graduates in 1940, I received from Rector Modrakowski a letter dated 13 September 1940 (Dz.[…] Dz.R.1077/40), from which it followed that the German civil authorities had ordered the closing of all Polish higher education institutions already in 1939, and that the issuing of certificates of university graduation was against German interests. Upon receipt of the abovementioned letter, we were no longer able to examine graduates. The Germans demanded to be presented with a list of those who took the examination. The list was sent to Tzschaschel by Doctor Zagorowski, at the time the head of the office of the Liquidation Committee.
It seems to me that none of the students who had taken the examination received a university graduation diploma.
In 1941 clandestine courses began; students were tutored in clandestine classes, organized as a regularly operating university. Yet their education suffered considerably, due to the inability to use scientific facilities. The Germans persecuted clandestine courses.
The German administrative authorities did not allow Poles to use scientific facilities either for educational or for scientific purposes. In exceptional cases, Poles were allowed to carry out some works in connection with military objectives, for example Professor Bassalik was allowed to inspect the quality of bread. Scientific facilities had been seized by the Germans, where they carried out their own research, for example, they had seized the medical facilities in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street and gave them to the military for the purpose of organizing a bacteriological institute.
The Germans removed equipment from many facilities during the occupation, for example from the Faculty of Inorganic Chemistry at Wawelska Street 17. Details can be furnished by Professor Bassalik.
When the uprising broke out, the University had already been partially plundered. Before the suppression of the uprising, the Germans removed many more items, among others five railway wagons of books from the university library, which I was informed of by the present director of the library, Assistant Professor Lewak.
Apart from official plundering, there was also plundering of a private character, as for example in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Pharmaceutical Faculty at Oczki Street 3.
My assistant, Doctor Jan Świderski, was approached by two German officers accompanied by a soldier. They inspected the department, and discovered what book collections were in its possession. On the following day they broke in and robbed a certain number of books; at the same time they stole books from other departments as well.
As the head of department, I wrote a report concerning this matter for Rector Modrakowski, who reported the entire issue to the German authorities, but to no avail.
Arrests among professors were numerous; most of the detained were sent off to concentration camps, where they died. Only a few returned. The following persons were killed: Professor Kopeć, Professor Rybarski, Professor Tretiak, Professor Rafacz. These are the names that I remember.
Based on observation of the state of affairs at the time, I would claim that the Germans were trying to destroy the Polish sciences and exterminate the Polish intelligentsia. I can name two more facts as evidence: 1. A German, Mehdorn, a graduate engineer, head of the Telecommunications Works [Zakłady Telekomunikacyjne] in Grochów, told me in a private conversation that Polish youth would not be admitted to university studies.
2. I was told that the Gestapo men supposedly told Professor Kopeć, who carried out research in the Biology Department, that Poles were not allowed to work scientifically. I don’t know who repeated these words to me.