BOLESŁAW FERENS

On 4 May 1946, the Municipal Court in Opatów, represented by Judge Al. Zalewski, with the participation of reporter R. Cybulski, interviewed the person mentioned below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, whereupon the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Bolesław Ferens
Age 52 years old
Parents’ names Michał and Waleria
Place of residence Opatów, Lubelska Street 18
Occupation blacksmith
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

During the German occupation, in 1942 – I do not remember the date exactly – my son Wacław, ordered by the local Arbeitsamt [labor office], was forced to go to work in Germany, from where he managed to escape after a few months. As a result of the reports that followed my fugitive son, an officer of the former criminal police, Wikarek, came in for my son and ordered me to hide him, saying, “It would be a pity for such a child to end up in their hands.”

Sometime later, in November 1942, at night, two other officers of the mentioned office came to me: Stanisław Słonka and Nowaczyk. Słonka took my son, although he knew him personally and was aware that my son was hiding. After a month’s stay in the local detention center, my son was relocated to one of the concentration camps, from where, after being transported to Auschwitz in May 1943, an official notice was sent to us by one of the gendarmes, announcing that my son had died in that camp.

I know Słonka as a man of the worst reputation in our area. He was more feared than any of the gendarmes. I have seen many times that both he and Nowaczyk went into the field to take part in the military fight against the Polish partisans.