JANINA KOCIELSKA

Warsaw, 16 March 1946. Investigating Judge Alicja Germasz, delegated to the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn and testified as follows:


Name and surname Janina Kocielska, née Zawadzka
Parents’ names Józef and Kazimiera
Date of birth 18 January 1900
Education Russian elementary school
Place of residence Warsaw, Omulewska Street 6, flat 12
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I lived with my family at Omulewska Street 6, where I live to this day, in a flat on the ground floor whose windows look out partially onto the street and partially onto the courtyard. On the other side of the gate there was a flat of Józef and Maria Masiuk, and in the courtyard Masiuk ran his mechanic’s workshop.

On 14 October 1943 at 7.00 a.m. I heard a car pull up in front of our house. I saw through the window that it was a small car. Two German gendarmes got out and entered the gate of our house. A moment later I saw Maria Masiuk run across the courtyard, shouting, “Józef! The Germans!” The gendarmes followed her, firing their guns. Mrs. Masiuk entered the workshop through a small antechamber. One of the gendarmes placed himself by the entrance and shouted in Polish, “Open the door!”, firing his gun incessantly at the workshop. The second gendarme went to the window on the other side of the house and began to shoot through it at the interior of the workshop. Some time later the gendarme opened the door and entered the workshop, and left it shortly afterwards, dragging Masiuk by the legs. In the antechamber he shot Masiuk in the head. At that moment Masiuk’s mother, who lived in the same house, arrived at the scene, shouting, “What have you done, you’ve killed my son!” They replied, “Duty is duty” and left. They left in the same car.

As soon as they were gone, I went to the workshop. Józef Masiuk was lying in the antechamber, dead, with his head shot through. In the room, Masiuk’s wife was lying on the floor, shot in the stomach and all covered in blood, and Jasiński a tram driver (I don’t know his name), who found himself in Masiuk’s workshop by chance, was lying face-down in the corner, dead. Masiuk’s employee (I don’t know his surname) left the adjacent room in which he had hidden.

A few hours later the bodies were taken by the staff members of the 17th commissariat [precinct], which the gendarmes had notified about the killing.

I would like to add that as the Germans were trying to enter the workshop, Dolupiski (employee of the above-mentioned commissariat) was brought from the car, with his hands tied, and ordered to call on Masiuk to open the door. As this didn’t work, he was taken back to the car.

I don’t know whether Mr. and Mrs. Masiuk were members of any underground organization.

The report was read out.