WACŁAW BEDNARCZYK

An excerpt from the witness interview report of 27 October 1945 compiled in Sokołów Podlaski.

Witness Wacław Bednarczyk, aged 29, the son of Antoni, domiciled in Sokołów; having been sworn in, the witness testified as follows:

Not far from the labor camp, there was an extermination camp for Jews. When I was repairing the railway tracks I could sometimes observe the area of the camp, since the siding that we were repairing ran along one of the sides of the camp. The work on the siding started already after the camp had been burnt down during the Uprising staged by Jewish laborers who worked there.

Despite the fact that the camp was burnt down, I am certain that there were still transports of Jews coming for extermination: I could see wagons being moved onto the camp siding several times. Each time, they brought ten wagons and threw Jews out of them. At that time, one could hear loud screams and wailing.

While working on a hill located in such a way that one could see the area of the extermination camp, I once saw a transport like that with people being driven out of the wagons. All people, fully dressed, were herded into a large hut, from which there were some muffled screams coming; then the place fell silent.

I do not know if any extermination took place in that hut.

Neither do I know if gas chambers were operational at that time.

I cannot determine the number of transports sent to the extermination camp after the Uprising. Anyway, several times, I saw a ten-wagon train being moved onto the camp siding.

I would like to add that the fences which surrounded the extermination camp, made of barbed wire and intertwined with pine in order to prevent observation of the camp, burnt down during the Uprising, and so later tablecloths, bedspreads and other similar things apparently taken away from the victimswere spread on wire to obscure the view.

I also observed that the area of the extermination camp was completely looted.

Siedlce, 14 January 1946