Warsaw, 26 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 obligation to speak the truth and of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname: | Stanisław Kleniewski |
| Date of birth: | 20 November 1901 |
| Names of parents: | Jan and Bronisława née Kowalewska |
| Occupation: | chief magistrate of the city of Warsaw |
| Education: | four years of secondary school [gimnazjum] |
| Place of residence: | Warsaw, Kaleńska Street 10, flat 7 |
| Religious affiliation: | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record: | none |
On 12 November 1943, I happened to witness a public execution which took place on Kępna Street, corner of Jagiellońska Street. I was walking to a baker I knew on Jagiellońska Street at around a quarter to 11:00 a.m. Before I reached Jagiellońska Street, I noticed that people had started to hide in entranceways. Thinking that the Germans had organized a round-up, I leapt into the nearest gate on Kępna Street and hid in a backyard. From there, I managed to watch what was happening on the street.
I saw three cars pull up. SS-men came in two of them and prisoners in the third, dressed in light grey overalls. The car with the prisoners drove into Kępna Street and stopped there. Then the SS-men started to drag the prisoners, who were very slow to move, out of the car. I had the impression that they were drugged. Only one of the prisoners, dressed like the others, jumped out of the car before it had stopped. He tried to escape, but was momentarily shot and fell. The SS-men lifted him and threw him into the car he had jumped out of. It seems that the SS-men then took the shot man from the car along with the other prisoners. Afterwards, they began placing the prisoners along the wall of the city slaughterhouse, facing the wall, backs to the firing squad, consisting of twelve SS-men and an officer.
I have to add that none of the prisoners wore bands over their eyes. They were placed in sixes along the wall, there was one seven. Altogether, there were 25 of them.
At the command of the officer, the SS-men shot a volley from their guns at the prisoners standing in front of the wall, shooting them in the back of the head. The prisoners fell immediately and the SS-men and the officer killed those who were still alive with pistols. Then the corpses were thrown onto the car and the next group of prisoners was placed along the wall.
They killed 25 people in this fashion. Then the car with the corpses and the cars with the SS-men, those who had performed the execution, drove off. A municipal sprinkler lorry arrived and cleaned the blood off the site of the carnage. Soon after, a priest came and sprinkled the place with holy water, and people started bringing flowers, but the gendarmes began shooting at them, so they ran away.
I myself had an upsetting adventure with Gestapo agents.
Unexpectedly, on 7 March 1940, four Gestapo men came to my flat and demanded that I hand over weapons and a radio. I answered that I didn’t have anything. They conducted a search, found nothing and left, but three days later they appeared again and took me to the Gestapo office at aleja Szucha 25.
Two hours later, Gestapo men started examining me, asking where I kept the weapons and the radio. Since I said that I didn’t have anything, they began beating me on the face, and then, having pulled down my trousers, they put me on a bench, tied me with two belts and started beating me haphazardly with bull whips. They mutilated my body and made me bleed so much that I had be treated by a doctor for two months. After the beating, I fainted, and when I woke up, I was lying in the lavatory. One of the Gestapo men checked on me. I asked him for water. He, however, kicked me in the face and knocked out four of my teeth.
I still have three bulges on my head from those kicks. After six days I was beaten again with bull whips and fainted. The Gestapo men, however, learned nothing from me and released me on the seventh day after the arrest.
I was taken from home on 10 March, and set free on 17 March 1940.
I did not learn the surnames of the Germans who tortured me, and I don’t remember what they looked like. I would recognize them if I met them.
Before the Gestapo agents’ visit I did have weapons and a radio, but I had taken them out of the house and hidden everything away three weeks previously.
I have not found out if anyone reported on me to Gestapo.
At that the report was read out.