On 12 May 1948 in Gdańsk, Examining Judge A. Zachariasiewicz, acting in the capacity of chairman of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, who having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Zbigniew Bujnowicz |
| Age | 28 years old |
| Parents’ names | Edward and Stanisława |
| Occupation | student of medicine at the Medical Academy in Gdańsk |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz, Staszica Street 6, flat 1 |
| Criminal record | I have a clean criminal record |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
When the Uprising broke out, I was residing in Warsaw at Narbutta Street 54. Following the unsuccessful attack launched by the insurgents on Mokotów prison and the school on Kazimierzowska Street, the insurgents withdrew during the night from 1 to 2 August 1944 to the barricades at Szustra Street. At 6.00 on the morning of 2 August, the Germans concentrated cannon, machine-gun and tank fire, albeit haphazardly, on the houses in Narbutta Street and neighboring streets. The house in which I lived was hit ten times by artillery shells. Poles were not shooting at the Germans from this or any of the neighboring houses, for – as I stressed – the insurgents had moved their campaign to the barricades. On the preceding day, too, no shots had been fired at the Germans from this house. At around 1.00 p.m. the firing died down, whereupon a patrol of some ten Germans in SS uniforms, armed with automatic pistols and grenades, burst into the courtyard. The soldiers in this patrol wore cuff titles with the words “Hermann Göring,” “Tottenkopf” and “Horst Wessel.” The patrol also included two airmen. They started shooting bursts in the stairwell, and then we heard them shouting: Alle heraus! Hearing this call, all of the residents of the house started to come out, as they stood. The people coming into the courtyard were assaulted verbally, being called bandits, and were also pushed around and beaten with rifle butts – this treatment was meted out to men, women and children, but without the least cause, for the civilians, impressed by the firing, came down calmly, with hands raised above their heads as instructed. Right from the doorstep we were driven on foot, chaotically, along Narbutta, Kazimierzowska and Rakowiecka streets to the Stauferkaserne barracks, which had been set up – as far as I recall – in the building of the pre-war Military Archives.
When we arrived at the courtyard of these barracks, we saw that a large number of men, women and children were already present, grouped in the same way as we were; these people had been taken from streets located in close proximity to ours, namely Aleja Niepodległości and Puławska, Kazimierzowska, Rejtana, Wiśniowa, Asfaltowa, Opoczyńska, Fałata and Rakowiecka streets. The eviction of residents was completed by around 5.00 p.m. We were forced to stand outdoors, in the rain, until approximately 8.00 p.m. Then our group, initially numbering some one thousand people, was divided into two smaller groups, one containing men and the other women with children, with each group being placed in a different block of the barracks. On the morning of the next day we looked through the windows and saw that the women with children had left under escort, proceeding along Rakowiecka Street towards Kazimierzowska Street. This was around 8.00 p.m. No one on the part of the Germans had officially spoken to us and explained the reasons for our detention. Only the SS-men, using slang, called us Warsaw bandits and announced that they would shoot us all if even one Pole ran away.
We received the first food and liquids only on the third day. The meal comprised a small quantity of biscuits and black coffee, which was provided in a quantity of approximately half a bucket for seventy men. In the evening of the third or fourth day following our arrival at the barracks, I heard a great number of shots which came – as it turned out later, when I became familiar with the grounds – from the direction of the garage. On the next day after the shooting I and a few other men, whom I didn’t know and whose surnames I cannot therefore provide, were employed in digging air raid trenches next to the aforementioned garage. The SS man guarding us, whose surname I don’t know, was tipsy and started boasting – pointing to the bullet impact points in nearby trees and in the wall of the garage, and also to traces of congealed blood on the ground – that last evening he himself had killed seven Poles. He stressed that this was no special secret, for one way or another we would all be executed, since such was the order given to the soldiers by the Gestapo in aleja Szucha. When I asked where the bodies were buried, he responded that this he could not tell. I know that between 10 and 12 August 1944 a group of fifteen men who had been detained in the barracks in the same manner as I, albeit in the right-hand block, were executed by firing squad.
I know this because their bodies were buried by Polish prisoners. I don’t know their surnames.
They told me that the corpses had been buried near the perimeter of the barracks, right next to the fence of the Higher School of Foreign Trade (WSHZ). We frequently talked among ourselves about the fact that following the evening roll call the Germans would take individual men. It was said that these men were taken to the Gestapo in aleja Szucha. I cannot state whether any of the men thus taken returned to the barracks, because no one was taken directly from the cell in which I was detained.
One morning towards the end of August 1944 or in the first days of September 1944 we were at roll call when two motor-cars with Gestapo men, whom I did not know by sight from the barracks, and two tarpaulin covered trucks, so-called Black Marias, drove up to the barrack square. Working randomly, with no lists, the Gestapo men selected around seventy men from amongst us, just by raising a finger and calling Komm!; the men were loaded onto the Black Marias and driven away. I didn’t know the surnames of any of those selected. I never saw these people in the barracks again, nor did I meet them after the War. After roll call was over, while walking to work I asked the SS man who was guarding us where the men had been taken. The gist of his reply was more or less this: worry about yourself, you will not see those men again.
We lived in the barracks as in a camp. We would be woken up at 5.30 a.m., and after roll call we would be given breakfast, this comprising one or two biscuits with a total mass of approximately 50 g and a quarter-liter of black coffee, after which we would work until 1.00 p.m. The lunch break lasted one hour, and we would receive a lunch made up of approximately one half-liter of watery groats. Afterwards we would work until 7.00 p.m., and then, after a two-hour break during which we would receive supper, this comprising the same food we had for breakfast or lunch, we would resume work until two o’clock in the morning. These living and working conditions, coupled with our brutal treatment at the hands of the SS-men, led to the complete exhaustion of the detainees, and we experienced an epidemic of bloody dysentery. We started muttering amongst ourselves. First and foremost, we wanted the work performed at night to be considered as a separate shift, that is, so that some of us would work in the day and the others at night. This dissent became known and one afternoon, between 9 and 11 August, we were gathered in the courtyard and spoken to in Polish by a non-commissioned officer from the guard garrison; his surname was Franckowiak, and his rank – as I managed to determine – was SS-Rottenführer. He said that we were protesting instead of showing our gratitude to Hitler, who had pardoned us and allowed us to live instead of killing us for having rebelled against him in Warsaw. He announced that in order to set an example, one of us would be hanged, and that everyone must watch the spectacle, for whoever lowered his eyes at the moment of execution would also be hanged. He stressed that following the execution lunch was to be eaten as usual, and if the remains of any meal were found, this would be treated as sabotage and the guilty hanged. If this execution failed to have the desired effect, all the intransigent dissenters and fifty people from their immediate circle would be hanged. Following this speech he selected one of the men and had him hanged from the tree near the garage. Before the execution the man turned to Franckowiak with the declaration that he was a soldier and asked for a death becoming of one, that is execution by firing squad, to which the SS man replied with a sneer: “For Poles, we only have nooses.” It was said that the victim was a Home Army officer in the rank of lieutenant, who had been wounded on the premises of Mokotów prison during the insurgents’ assault on it. He was found there by SS-men, wounded in both legs and having lain in hiding for a length of time, without any assistance or care, and nourishing himself – as he told us – with droplets of water condensing on water pipes and pigeon eggs.
Franckowiak was the most brutal member of the SS garrison guarding us in the barracks. He would beat people for no reason, whenever there was an opportunity, using anything he had at hand, and when his victim had fallen to the ground, battered by a shovel, pickaxe or pitchfork, he would continue to kick him or her with his boots, shouting out the most vulgar insults. I personally experienced these forms of treatment whenever I had the misfortune of meeting him, which would have been eight or ten times. His physical description is as follows: height around 1.65 m, stocky, with an oval face, straight nose, pale eyes, blonde hair brushed upwards, without any visible distinguishing marks; his voice was low and hoarse, as is typical for people who abuse alcohol.
I am not aware which garrison member had the surname Baumeister. If this refers to the head of the unit in charge of the left block, then I must say that he was a decent man and it was impossible to observe that he had any predilection for cruelty towards prisoners. He was the sole exception amongst the SS garrison. He was slightly shorter than Franckowiak, very thin, with an elongated, dark and sunken face, streaks of grey at the temples, and had been wounded a number of times in one leg (but I don’t remember which one), in consequence of which he walked with a slight limp and assisted himself with a walking stick.
The garrison commander was Hauptsturmführer Patz, whose first name I don’t know. I didn’t know the surname of his deputy, nor those of the other SS offices under his command. The SS garrison was subordinate to Patz, while those who guarded us – the Polish prisoners detained in the barracks – carried cuff titles with the words “Tottenkopf,” “Hermann Göring” and “Horst Wessel.” According to my calculations, the garrison counted some two hundred and fifty men, however towards the end of August it was strengthened by a group of SS Vlasovtsy soldiers, approximately two hundred men, together with troops in Cossack uniforms. They had no contact with us, and as far as I know were used in front-line fighting. This was made abundantly clear by the fact that on 25 or 26 September a group of around sixty of the abovementioned Vlasovtsy soldiers were brought in; these Cossacks had been wounded after stepping on a mine placed by the insurgents in front of the barricades.
One day as I was working alone, tidying the observation tower, my SS guard, a Romanian, pointed out Patz, who was passing by in a car, and said that he was the worst and most cruel person that he had ever encountered. He even aimed his rifle at him, stating that if he had had the courage, he would have killed him.
On 10 October 1944 we were transferred to Włochy near Warsaw, from where I managed to escape on 15 October.
I learned from the account of my mother, who resides with me at the abovementioned address, that before the women were led out of the barracks – which occurred, as I have previously mentioned, on the day following that of our detainment – they were instructed to walk with white scarves to the barricade at the corner of Szustra and Kazimierzowska streets and call upon the insurgents to destroy the barricade under threat of execution of all the men imprisoned in the barracks.
I don’t know the details of this matter and am unable to state whether or not my mother took part in this action which, however, as she stated, did take place.
The work that we were forced to perform was varied – earth work and diggings on the premises of the barracks, street cleaning, erecting barricades, pointless work (ordered solely to torment us, such as the cleaning of lavatories with our bare hands), as well as the loading of household items and other valuables onto trucks and the transport of these to the Western Railway Station.
I cannot provide any other surnames of the SS garrison, for I don’t know any more. Nor do I know the surnames of my fellow-prisoners, for we did not use them even when speaking amongst ourselves. As regards the crimes committed by members of the SS garrison from the Stauferkaserne outside the premises of the barracks, I know of the following:
1. Towards the end of August 1944 I saw a group of men, women, and children – some two thousand in all – being driven on foot from the direction of Puławska Street, guarded not only by SS-men from the garrison, but also by infantrymen and airmen; two old ladies who were unable to walk and fell behind were shot dead by SS-men on the tramcar tracks in Rakowiecka Street, at the exit of Kazimierzowska Street.
2. On the next day, while being driven by car to the Western Railway Station, I noticed that the vehicle had stopped on the highway leading to Okęcie; an SS man stepped out and ordered an old man who was lying in a ditch to walk to the railway station, for he was not allowed to remain there. In a mixture of Polish and German, the old man explained that he was tired and as soon as he had rested a bit, he would proceed, in response to which the SS man shot him in the head, took a petrol canister, poured the liquid over the man – who was still moving – and set him alight with a match.
3. A few days later I was being driven to the Western Railway Station and saw a group of women with children and a few elderly men, some sixty people in total, bunched together in the allotments at the end of Rakowiecka Street. Our vehicle was stopped and one of the SS-men on board was summoned; we stood at a distance of approximately 50 m from this group, awaiting the man’s return, and I saw that the soldier was taking the Poles’ wartime identity cards, while they were surrounded by some thirty SS-men from the barracks, whom I new by sight. Small bundles and suitcases, as well as prams and wheelbarrows which – as I understood – were the property of these Poles, were lying a few steps from the group. Suddenly, the SS-men surrounding the group started shooting at the people from their machine pistols. The soldier who had been called out returned and our vehicle moved off; however, even from the road – for the space was open – I continued to observe the massacre for some time, clearly hearing the shots and groans. A few days later I saw wartime identity cards strewn around in one of the lavatories in the barracks, in the left block.
We returned from the railway station along a different route, and I saw from afar that there was a fire burning at the site of the massacre. The characteristic whiff of burning bodies reached the barracks, causing vomiting.
4. A few days later, while walking for work along aleja Szucha to the Ujazdowski Garden, I saw a group of some one hundred to one hundred and twenty naked men standing beside freshly dug pits at the point where Litewska Street exits into aleja Szucha; they were surrounded by a strong SS contingent from the barracks – men whom I knew by sight. All at once, the SS guards started shooting at the victims from their machine pistols; some of the men fell, while others tried to flee, however the group was massacred before we had covered even a few dozen meters, and the shooting subsided.
5. One morning between 23 and 25 September 1944, while in Odyńca Street, to which under escort we had carried from the trucks, which had stopped at Okęcie, buckets with coffee and soup for the SS-men and Vlasovtsy soldiers engaged in the campaign of evicting Poles, I witnessed two SS-men raping two young girls aged around 20 in the garden near the front of one of the houses. Having completed the rape, the perpetrators ordered the victims to walk away, whereupon one of them shot both the girls.
This is all. The report was read out.