ZYGMUNT GILEWICZ

On 12 February 1948, Dr. Zygmunt Gilewicz (domiciled in Opypy village, municipality Grodzisk Mazowiecki) appeared on summons before the Warsaw District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland and made the following deposition in the presence of the clerk of the Warsaw District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland:

Approximately in latter half of 1941, the so-called SOP [Straż Ochrony Powstania; Defense Units of the Uprising] was set up. This organization, similar to an army, was based on territorial divisions. Its tasks comprised preparing a second mobilization and ensuring the administration and supplies needed for the fighting troops to fall back on. I was appointed sanitary chief of the Warsaw City division. My responsibility was to organize the health services there. My task was to use already operating institutions, in which clandestine cells were being organized, and to prepare new health facilities according to predictions.

SOP divisions were created in Warsaw, and the sanitary units operated within these divisions.

This was the state of affairs until the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, with slight modifications resulting from the progress of the fighting.

At the end of 1943, the activity of SOP was reorganized in such a way that the administration and supplies duties were handed over to the civil administration within the framework of the delegation. I therefore found myself in the civil administration as chief of the Warsaw city department, comprising the following municipal divisions: health, welfare, veterinary medicine and physical education. I held this post until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising and in its initial phases, for as long as the post had any sense and meaning.

At the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising I was in the Old Town, where the city board (city council) had its headquarters. During the second week of the Uprising, when disorganization struck the civil organization, I began to work (while maintaining my previous function) as a physician at the following sanitary points:


1. The prison on Daniłowiczowska Street (moved to Miodowa Street after it was scattered)
2. The point on Miodowa Street (basements of the Simon and Stecki company) – also liquidated due to military operations
3. The post at Miodowa Street 23, where I worked with Dr. Skonieczny (currently domiciled in Inowrocław) among others
4. The post I arranged at the Z. Spiess company on Hipoteczna Street (destroyed as a result of bombardment).

As for people who could provide information on the organization of hospitals in the Old Town, I know the following:

1. Colonel Dr. Lenk (currently works in the Main Board of the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw on Nowogrodzka Street)
2. Colonel Dr. Strel (currently works in the Ministry of National Defense, Department of Health)
3. Dr. Skonieczny (currently works in Inowrocław)
4. Lipkowski (director of the Order of Malta Hospital before the Uprising).

Acting on an order which I received in the final days of August 1944, I had to go through the sewers to Śródmieście, where the management of the municipal board had already relocated, so I cannot provide any information concerning the final days of the Uprising in the Old Town.