FRANCISZEK GAWLIK

The witness testified as follows: Warsaw, 26 April 1947. Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw Halina Wereńko interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Articles 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Franciszek Gawlik
Date of birth 2 July 1892 in colony Raczyce, county of Stopnica
Names of parents Kacper and Katarzyna née Kwiecień
Place of residence Warsaw, Grzybowska Street 15, flat 13
Education four classes of secondary school and a two-year course in a conservatory
Religion Roman Catholic
Profession clerk of the Municipal Transport Company [Miejskie Zakłady Komunikacyjne – MZK], Wola Station

During the Warsaw Uprising I lived in Warsaw at Kraszewskiego Street 9. I worked as a clerk in the Wola Station of the Municipal Transport Company. I lived with my wife Maria née Łukawska (born in 1886), my son Ryszard (born in 1921), and my daughters Maria (born in 1926) and Helena (born in 1928).

On 5 August 1944 at around 5 p.m., the Germans torched the house in Skierniewicka Street 34 and the buildings of Franaszek’s factory. At around 6 p.m., a unit of SS-men burst into our house. They were wearing green uniforms, camouflage ones, with skulls on their caps. All residents were ordered to leave the house. I went out with my family in a group consisting of the tenants of our house, residents of a neighbouring timber building and persons who had fled to us on 4 August 1944 from Franaszek’s factory and were staying in the basements of our house. The Germans herded us to the front of the MZK administrative building in Młynarska Street. The group was composed mainly of women and children.

The SS-man in charge of the unit escorting us spoke Polish, I did not notice his rank. One of the Germans counted the detained and I heard him reporting to the commander that there were about three hundred of us.

Our group was surrounded by about twenty SS-men, who set up two machine guns in front of the standing people, near the garage, one of them close to the people. We were told to put all of the items taken from home and any valuables in a pile, then the Germans took these items away. Women and children were put nearer to the fence, men were put more to the front, between the MZK office building and the fence of the neighbouring building. I heard a round fired from the machine gun and I collapsed on the ground without being hit. I heard terrible cries and moans, I felt that I was being drenched in blood and that someone was dying next to me. My son Ryszard, police officer Lewicki, and the metal worker Błotnicki were shot right next to me.

After a while the shooting died away, people were lying side by side, I saw the SS-men walking among the lying people, checking who was still alive and shooting those who were in the backs of their heads. Lying, I held my legs inertly over the basement steps. Three times a German approached and poked me, checking if I was alive. I managed to remain motionless, and this is how I survived. After a while the Germans moved away from the corpses, but threw grenades on them. It got quiet.

After the Germans had left, I discovered that my daughter, Maria, was alive and uninjured, that Helena had been hit with grenade shrapnel in her leg, and that my wife and son were dead. The following residents of our house survived: Michniewicz, Mrs. Olczak, Iwanowicz, Tadeusz Dziugieł, and a couple more. Together with my daughters I fled to Dworska Street, to the hospital in Czyste Street, where we met Błotnicka, a resident of our house who had also survived that execution. On 11 August 1944 we were transported from the hospital in Czyste Street to the camp in Pruszków.

At that the report was concluded and read out.