ROMAN GÓRECKI

Warsaw, 23 February 1950. Judge [no name given], acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, heard the person named below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Roman Górecki
Date and place of birth 31 August 1891, Sokule, Błonie county
Names of parents Bonifacy and Łucja, née Kowalczyk
Occupation of the father laborer
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Education 2 grades of elementary school
Occupation caretaker
Place of residence Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 6, flat 10
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 6, where I lived at the time. Until 5 August 1944 the gate of our house had remained closed. On that day at about noon, I no longer remember the exact hour, the Germans began to hammer at our gate. As it was not opened to them, they tore it down and ordered everybody out into the street. The Germans marched the men and young women to the Nicolaus Copernicus monument, while mothers with children and old people were placed in the house at Królewska Street 7. When the civilians were evicted the Germans set all the houses on fire. I was supposed to go to the monument, but I managed to escape along the other side of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street to Królewska Street. I did it at the moment when the Germans (in helmets, but I did not recognize the unit) were throwing the residents out from the house at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 4, and there was some commotion.

We stayed for two days and nights in the house at Królewska Street 7, in a group of people from the houses in Krakowskie Przedmieście and Królewska streets. Towards the evening of the third day the Germans set the house on fire and took us all to the Saxon Garden, where we had to lie all night under constant threat of death as hostages. We were forbidden to get up.

On the morning of 9 August (I’m not sure of the date) the Germans marched us to Hale Mirowskie [the market halls]. There we fell into the hands of “Ukrainians” (I recognized them by the scarves, worn around the neck by “Ukrainians”). Women and children were marched in the direction of Wola, whereas we, the men, both the young and the old, were ordered to kneel down with our hands up in the open square between the halls. They began to torture us. Those who lowered their hands due to exhaustion or were discovered to be in possession of some valuables were killed on the spot. I noticed that the “Ukrainians” were especially cruel towards the better-dressed men.

This execution lasted almost for the entire day. Now and then new groups of men were coming, and they were treated in the same way. The groups of our tormentors, the “Ukrainians,” also changed twice. On the afternoon of that day, the Germans ordered a few men to take the bodies of the executed and throw them into the pierced ceiling of the second hall in Mirowski Square, in which these bodies were burnt.

In this manner over 50 civilian men died on 9 August 1944 in the square between the halls.

In the evening the Germans led us to St. Stanislaus’ Church in Wola, from where the civilians were transported to the Pruszków transit camp.

At this the report was concluded and read out.