JÓZEF BARYSZ

23 February 1950, Warsaw. Trainee Judge Irena Skonieczna acting as a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland interviewed the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Józef Barysz
Date and place of birth 1 November 1904, Warsaw
Parents’ names Józef and Józefa, née Piekarska
Father’s occupation Roofer
State affiliation and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Catholic
Education 3 grades of elementary school
Occupation Bricklayer
Place of residence Aleje Jerozolimskie 39, flat 14, Warsaw
Criminal record None

At the moment when the Uprising began, I was in the house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 33, at the corner with Marszałkowska Street. On 3 August 1944 before 12.00 a.m., Wehrmacht soldiers burst into our courtyard, smashing the gate and ordering all the men to come out to the gate. We were made to stand in a semi-circle. As one of us spoke German, we learned that the Germans were going to shoot us because their positions on the other side of Aleje Jerozolimskie and Marszałkowska Street had been fired at from our house. However, at that moment another soldier appeared and told the remaining ones that we were innocent and that they were fired at from another house whose gable wall could be seen rising behind our property. We were then told to go in the direction of the National Museum. The women were taken to the “ Wiktor” restaurant on the other side of Marszałkowska Street. Then the Germans set about looting our house, to which they set fire that evening.

We, the men, reached the house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 17. Our group had already grown bigger because we were herded along with other residents from the surrounding houses at Aleje Jerozolimskie into the janitor’s room at no. 29. The house was set alight by the Germans. People began to suffocate, women and children started crying and screaming. Then the Germans escorted us further to the museum. The gate to the house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 17 was opened and we all entered. The Wehrmacht soldiers, one of whom was a Silesian, saw this but didn’t react to it in any way.

I was accompanied by Domański, an older man working at PSB in Koło. I don’t know his address. I saw no German crimes. I stayed in the area controlled by the insurgents until 4 October and then I got out of the city through Okęcie. The women from our house were taken on 3 August 1944. After two weeks spent in the “Wiktor” restaurant they were sent to Pruszków.

At this point, the report was brought to a close and read out.