ADAM KROKIEWICZ


Forename and surname Adam Marian Antoni Krokiewicz
Names of parents Antoni and Helena Dörfler
Date of birth 11 February 1890, Kraków
Occupation Professor at the University of Warsaw
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
State affiliation Polish
Education university

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the professors’ dormitory at Brzozowa Street 10. The following professors were present with me in the house nos. 10 and 12: Bassalik, Szeruda, Zajączkowski, Lencewicz, Batowski, Kotarbiński, Krzyżanowski, Borawski (†), Leśniewski (†), Father P. Chojnacki and others, including [their families?].

On 1 September 1944, between 8.00 and 10.00 a.m., German detachments entered from the direction of Bugaj Street. First, people were displaced from the house at Brzozowa Street 12, and then from no. 10. Groups of civilians were led to the courtyard of the Brühl Palace, where other groups from the Old Town were joined. The escort was made up of the ”Ukrainians”, but I also saw German soldiers, albeit only privates.

In the courtyard of the Brühl Palace I saw that the “Ukrainians” selected some men who were then allowed to go fetch water, but these men were robbed by the “Ukrainians”. In this way one of them took Professor Lencewicz’s watch. When Professor Lencewicz intervened, a German officer searched the Ukrainian, hit him on the face, and gave the watch back to Professor Lencewicz.

In the afternoon our group and the remaining civilians were led from the Brühl Palace in the direction of Wola. We were escorted by privates, mainly “Ukrainians”. At Chłodna Street, behind the Charles Borromeo’s Church, the same Ukrainian who had taken Professor Lencewicz’s watch in the courtyard of the Brühl Palace– he had been assigned to the convoy – started looking for Professor Lencewicz in our group. Although the latter had a disguise of sorts, the Ukrainian found him and dragged him, together with his wife, into some ruins. They did not return to our group, nor do we have any information about them to date.

In the courtyard I saw Professor Batowski, who walked together with us. In the St. Adalbert’s Church I could no longer find him. I was told by his wife that Professor Batowski, weakened due to illness, had fallen along the way to the church, and the escort had finished him off with their rifles.

We stayed in the St. Adalbert’s Church for the night, and on the next day were transported to the transit camp in Pruszków.

In the course of the selection carried out in Barrack 5 in Pruszków I was released due to my age, but my seriously ill wife (pituitary gland illness) and two profoundly deaf children (aged 20 and 13) were considered fit for deportation to Germany.

However, despite the order of a German officer, I managed to take my family over to Barracks 1 and 2, to the group of people who were consigned to stay.

When we were leaving the houses at Brzozowa Street 10 and 12, they were not on fire. After we returned to Warsaw, however, the buildings were burnt out, and all our belongings and scientific output were destroyed.

We were only allowed to take what we could gather in five minutes – the time the German soldiers gave us to leave the house.

At this point the report was concluded and read out.