MARIA GASIK

Warsaw, 6 July 1949. A member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Norbert Szuman (MA), interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Maria Gasik, née Balcerak
Date and place of birth 23 November 1920 in Długa Brzezina, Końskie county
Parents’ names Łukasz and Rozalia, née Karaluch
Father’s occupation miner
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religion Roman Catholic
Education elementary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Bachmacka Street 15, flat 7
Criminal record none

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the house at Bachmacka Street 15. The area of the Mokotowski Forts, and therefore also our street, was in German hands. The nearest German units were stationed in the fort, while the insurgents had taken up positions along Aleja Niepodległości. Until 7 August 1944, Germans patrols would frequently enter Bachmacka and Pyrska Streets in order to inspect the war-time identity cards of the residents. I do not know what units they were from.

On 7 August the Germans, acting more or less casually, ordered the entire population to leave Pyrska, Bachmacka, Wołoska and Baboszewska Streets, and led our group – numbering some 300 people – to Mokotowski Fort, to some officer, the commandant. This commandant gave one of the civilian men a pass for the whole group and ordered us, under an escort comprising four German soldiers, to leave the city. They marched us through Okęcie and Paluch to the Służewiec Race Track, where they let us go.

As our group was passing through Okęcie, it was shot at by some German unit. Only the quick intervention of our escort saved us from death.

As regards the mass grave located at the exit of Pyrska Street near Odyńca Street, the witness testified as follows:

After the civilian population had returned to Pyrska, Bachmacka and neighboring streets, in the spring of 1945, the municipal authorities started collecting the bodies of people killed during the Uprising in this area. The bodies were buried temporarily in a joint grave at the corner of Odyńca and Pyrska Streets. I have not heard anything about a mass crime being committed in the above-mentioned area. In the autumn of 1945 or 1946 (I do not remember the exact year), the Red Cross performed an exhumation of the mass grave.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.