Warsaw, 23 March 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), heard 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 | Józef Banasiak |
| Date and place of birth | 25 October 1897, Studzianki, Rawa county |
| Names of parents | Jan and Agnieszka, née Szatkowska |
| Occupation of the father | laborer |
| State affiliation and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Education | elementary school |
| Occupation | old age pensioner |
| Place of residence | Sandomierska Street 23, flat 13 |
| Criminal record | none |
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Sandomierska Street 23. That area was not captured by the insurgents. I don’t know where the closest insurgent positions were, for I did not leave my house at all. Our part of Sandomierska Street was under the control of the Germans from a shelter situated at Rakowiecka Street, close to the exit of Sandomierska Street. During the first days of the uprising, the Germans did not appear in our street at all.
On the morning of 4 or 5 August (I don’t remember the exact date) at about 9.00 a.m., a boy who was watching Rakowiecka Street from a window shouted that a group of soldiers had left the barracks which had been occupied by German units during the war and that they were walking in the direction of our house, which is at the corner of Rakowiecka and Sandomierska streets. The soldiers surrounded our building and, through the shop on the corner owned by citizen Lipko, entered the stairs and the courtyard of our house. At that time I was in my flat. Upon hearing the explosions of grenades, which the Germans (they wore green uniforms) threw into the flat of the shop owner, in the gateway, and on individual floors, I rushed to the basement. When I was running downstairs, I saw the body of the shop owner, Feliks Lipko. Later I learned that the Germans had killed two daughters of citizen Lipko in his flat.
I also learned at a later date that having reached the stairs, the Germans were pounding on the doors of individual flats. Those who opened their doors were killed. In this manner, the following people were killed: Henryk Tschirschnitz on the first floor, Aleksander Wandel on the second floor, and four residents from the fourth floor – three women and a man whose surnames I don’t know. At the same time the Germans started a fire by throwing grenades into the flats. The remaining residents, 20–30 people, were gathered by the Germans in the courtyard, from where – as I know – they were marched to the barracks. As I got wounded in the leg during the events described above, I hid in the basement of the house. After I had been hiding out in the basement for approximately two days, older people from among those who had been taken on 4 or 5 August returned to our house, and I learned from them that they had been taken to the barracks on Rakowiecka Street, from where younger people had been sent to Pruszków.
On 15 August the Germans again stormed into our house and took us older people to Rakowiecka Street, from where, through Pole Mokotowskie and Wawelska Street, they brought us to the Western Railway Station and deported us in trains to Pruszków. The same was done with other residents from our area, as on 15 August I saw residents from neighboring streets around me.
I would like to emphasize that throughout the uprising there were no insurgents on the premises of our house.
As far as I know, on 4 or 5 August 1944 the Germans reportedly killed 18 people at Sandomierska Street 19, but I don’t know any details pertaining to this case.
At this the report was concluded and read out.