Warsaw, 14 March 1945
Commission for the Investigation of
German Crimes
in Warsaw
Testimony of Citizen Bronisław Mączka, born on 9 July 1885 in Warsaw, resident at Stalowa Street 52, flat 12.
Regarding: the execution of Stanisław Mączka, born on 21 March 1912, resident at Żerańska Street 6.
On 1 August 1944 my son was returning home from work from the direction of Brukowa Street with his wife and four year old son. It was 7.00 p.m.. At this time some tanks drove up from Targowa Street, firing from their cannons into the street. My son and his family proceeded to the public shelter in the basement of the Orthodox seminary building at Zygmuntowska Street. A few minutes later some gendarmes broke down the door and burst into the shelter. Without checking their identity papers, they took all 17 men outside, including my son. The women and children were locked in the basement.
When the men had been led out, the gendarmes accused them of being bandits and placed them in the middle of Cyryla i Metodego Street, near the sewer, and then executed them with machine gun shots to the back of the head.
Following the execution the Germans set up guard posts armed with automatic weapons, and did not allow the dead to be buried for five days.
On 5 August the male residents of the houses at Wileńska Street 3 and 5 were forcibly taken and ordered to bury the bodies in the cemetery near the Orthodox church. While the dead were being buried, the men took out their identity papers and handed them over to the administrator of the Orthodox church, from whom I received my son’s papers.
I testify the truth. I have read the report before signing it.