WIESŁAW ROTT

Warsaw, 9 January 1946. Judge Alicja Germasz interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of Art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as of the gravity of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Wiesław Rott
Age 31
Names of parents Zygmunt and Henryka Józefa
Place of residence Warsaw, Bolecha Street 22
Occupation Health inspector for the Municipal Board
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relation to the parties -

As the chief of the exhumation/inhumation group of the Warsaw Municipal Board Health Department, I conducted an exhumation on the grounds of Franaszek’s factory at Wolska Street in April 1945. We extracted large quantities of charred human remains and ash from an uncovered hole (ca. 2.5 cubic metres of capacity). The hole was full of remains and ash.

I estimate the number of incinerated human bodies to be around a thousand. The aforementioned remains have been moved to a common grave at Saint Stanisław hospital.

I heard from the victims’ family members, who were present during the inhumation (I cannot name them), and from workers at Franaszek’s factory who were at the time clearing up the works, that during the uprising the Germans chased people out of the houses at Wolska Street 34 through 52 [and drove them] to Franaszek’s factory, where they shot them and burned the bodies. The same was done to the workers at Franaszek’s factory and the people in the factory’s shelters. These informers told me that four thousand people died there in this way.

The report was read out.