MICHAŁ ZAJĄC

18 April 1946. The Municipal Court in Opatów in the person of judge Aleksander Zalewski, with the participation of court reporter Ryszard Cybulski, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn under Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and testified as follows:


Name and surname Michał Zając
Date of birth 8 September 1912
Parents’ names Jan and Teofila, née Zając
Place of residence Opatów, Wiejska Street 5
Occupation laborer
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

At the beginning of the War, that is in September 1939, as a POW, I was deported for forced labor to Germany, from where I managed to flee in 1942. Shortly after my return, a functionary of the local SD, Stanisław Słonka, ordered me to report to him. I obliged, as he promised that he would do me no harm, and we went together to the SD station. There he handed me over to its chief, one Schultz (who was later assassinated), telling him that I was the one he had told him about. Then Słonka left. Schultz began an interrogation, and I quickly realized that he was perfectly aware that I had fled from Germany; he openly declared that he would send me back to a penal camp for a period of six months, as such was the punishment that Słonka had demanded.

After a few days, which I spent in custody in Opatów and Częstochowa, I was deported for forced labor to Hanover. From Częstochowa until my destination, I was chained and escorted by a German gendarme. Although I wasn’t placed in a penal camp, I had to work in the Reich until the entry of the Allied forces. When I was in jail in Opatów, one of the inmates, Kazimierz Królikowski – who was beaten black and blue – complained to me that he had been battered by Tadeusz Teodorczyk and Stanisław Słonka, one of whom had used an oak, and the other a hornbeam stick. Both Teodorczyk and Słonka were notorious for their wholehearted collaboration with the Germans. During my detainment in Germany I received letters from my friends informing me that Słonka “ruled” the city and could kill any Pole he wanted.