KONSTANTY SMOLIŃSKI

Warsaw, 3 April 1947. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, [Judge] Halina Wereńko, interviewed the following person as a witness. Having been instructed of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Konstanty Smoliński
Names of parents Aleksander and Maria
Date of birth 2 June 1903, Krępa village, Przasnysz county
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Place of residence Warsaw, Obozowa Street 78, flat 3
Education seven grades of elementary school
Occupation worker at the Franaszek factory in Warsaw, Wolska Street 43

As an employee of J. Franaszek factory and a member of the factory fire brigade, I stayed in the factory during the Warsaw Uprising.

On 3 August 1944, a German troop burst into the factory for the first time. It seemed that they were from the Wehrmacht, judging by the fact that they wore green uniforms. The soldiers ordered that men were to immediately go out into Wolska Street.

I then went out in a group of around two hundred people, and our group was driven before tanks to demolish barricades in Wolska and Młynarska Street, as well as in Wolska and Karolkowa Street. During the demolition of the barricades one man got wounded. The Germans were firing frequently, there was chaos.

At some point one of the Germans pointed at a young boy from our group (whose name I don’t know) and said that this boy had attended to a wounded insurgent. The boy was immediately executed.

Together with our group, the Germans took a group of women from Franaszek’s factory, who were escorted to St Adalbert church.

Having demolished the barricades, and since the rear of the Germans was threatened by the insurgents, our group was also herded towards that church. Walking down Wolska Street, I saw a few corpses on the pavements, and in the yard in Wolska Street 56 I saw several more corpses. Near St Adalbert church, the Germans escorting us put us in a line in front of a fence, and then the officer went to the headquarters on Sokołowska Street. Half an hour later he came back and released the men belonging to the J. Franaszek factory fire brigade. I therefore went back to the factory.

I later heard that men were being selected in St Adalbert church to be taken to execution, and that a part of our group may have died that way, since not everyone was located after the war.

On 5 August 1944, the Germans entered the factory again, setting the buildings on fire. I then hid with a group of my colleagues in the sewage conduit.

I heard machine gun shots. I later found out that an execution had been carried out in the factory.

At that the report was concluded and read out.