JAN OBARA

In Ostrowiec, on 25 January 1947, Acting District Judge Mieczysław Radwan, member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jan Obara
Father’s name Stanisław
Age 47
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation official of the municipal council in Ostrowiec
Criminal record none
Place of residence Ostrowiec

Before the war, I worked for the criminal police in Ostrowiec. In December 1939, I was called to serve for the German police and was employed in that position until 24 July 1944, until I escaped at the order of an underground organization. I currently work for the municipal council in Ostrowiec. During my service for the Blue Police, I worked for the criminal police, and because of that I would occasionally come in contact with the German political police.

Out of all the political police officers serving in Ostrowiec, the chief of the criminal police, Wejler, who took part in the brutal pacification of Gębice and Bór Kunowski, was the most ruthless and cruel towards Poles. Both of the above villages were burned, and their inhabitants murdered. Wejler was the head of the criminal police from late 1939 until the end [of the war]. Initially the head of the Gestapo was Karsten, then Soldan, who stayed until the end. Together with Soldan, came major Kurt with two other officers, and the three of them established a “police court” with the right to carry out a death sentence.

Before Kurt came by the end of 1943, the death sentences were carried out in Radom. The most cruel of the Gestapo officers was Bruno vel Bruner from Wrocław, responsible for Jewish affairs, while the worst of the Schupo [Schutzpolizei] was Lucke, who personally carried out sentences. The latter murdered 70 Jewish children himself in Rozenwan’s [?] mill. With my own eyes I saw Bruno beat a Jewish woman – whom he dragged out of a hospital bed – to death, in the gate at [...] Street 51. I heard it was the wife of some famous doctor from Kraków. Regarding other officers of the Gestapo, gendarmerie, and Schupo, I currently cannot recall any specific information because of how much time has passed. At the time, during the occupation, a log was kept of the activity of every German in the town and in the district, which included original addresses and descriptions. The log was kept at the Home Army headquarters, but I don’t know what happened to it. “Gestapo” was highlighted three times on the full page [?], “criminal police” was overwritten.