7 February 1946, Warsaw. Antoni Krzętowski, assigned to sit on the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the obligation to tell the truth and of the criminal liability for making false statements, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Wacław Pikuła |
| Date of birth | 16 March 1893 |
| Parents’ names | N.N. and Marianna |
| Occupation | Janitor at Wola Hospital |
| Education | Three grades in the Russian elementary school |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Ludwiki Street 15, flat 5 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal Record | None |
The outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising caught me in the house on Staszica Street 14. During the first days of August 1944, this area was controlled by the insurgents, but on 5 August at 4 p.m. the Germans and “Ukrainians” entered our place and threw all of us hiding there out of the house’s basement into the street. There were a few hundred people out there – men, women and children. After escorting us to the courtyard of the adjacent house on Staszica 15, the Germans segregated the men from the women and children. The women were then sent in the direction of Górczewska Street and the men stayed in the aforementioned courtyard, where the Germans started the execution.
When the execution started there were about five hundred Polish men there. When we arrived in the courtyard of the house in question, their number ran to about 80 men and I saw the dead body of one man lying on the ground. There were other groups of Polish people whom the Germans brought to this courtyard. But the women were separated from the men and sent further on, while the men stayed there with us.
The courtyard in question was long and narrow. The ratio of its length to width was 3:1 and the courtyard was about 25 to 50 meters wide. We occupied more than half of it, standing next to each other at the inside part of the courtyard. At the other end of it, by the gate leading into the street, the Germans set up three machine guns and opened fire on us from two of them, placed on both sides of the gate. They fired at the crowd unceasingly. I fell on the ground the moment they began to shoot. I was not hit by a bullet. Two other bodies fell on me.
I cannot say for how long the Germans were firing. Eventually the shooting fell silent. After ten minutes of lying on the ground I noticed people around begin to move. The man lying next to me (I still don’t know his name) told me that the Germans had been ordered to spare the lives of those who survived the execution, and people were getting up. I stood up too. There were about one hundred men still alive, including the wounded.
I don’t know if the Germans were actually given such an order, but they spared our lives. We were assembled together and escorted to Górczewska Street where at the square, near the house at no. 15, we joined a crowd of other Poles, both women and children, with whom we then went to Moczydło Park.
At Moczydło Park I met almost all the nurses and other hospital employees, who told me that the hospital’s male personnel had been executed by the Germans behind some sheds on Górczewska Street.
I wish to add that on our way to Moczydło Park, as we were passing along Górczewska Street, I saw two courtyards filled with piles of dead bodies – certainly the victims of executions carried out by the Germans.
However, the execution site of the male hospital personnel was elsewhere. I saw it on 5 August 1945, on the anniversary of the execution. The sheds had burned down and are no longer there, and only the crosses, erected on the execution site, remain standing.
I also wish to add that the moment before the Germans started the execution, I saw a German soldier ask a Polish uniformed policeman standing at some distance away if we were Polish insurgents. When the policeman answered in the affirmative, the Germans immediately opened fire on us.
I know that policeman very well. His name is Domagalski. He was a German interpreter and lived at Staszica Street 16. I don’t know where he is now or what he does.
In Jelonki, where we were transported from Moczydło Park, I saw him surrounded by the Germans. He was talking with them. I don’t know what happened to him later. There was a transit camp in Jelonki. Released from the camp, I immediately returned to work at the Wola hospital, which – in view of all the female hospital personnel present there – was recreated in Jelonki. Among the male hospital personnel, only three doctors had survived – Dr Manteuffel, Dr Woźniewski and Dr Wesołowski.
The report was read out.