KAROL RAJSKI

On 11 December 1945, in Radom, Kazimierz Borys, Investigating Judge from the Second District of the District Court in Radom, based in Radom, 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 Karol Rajski
Age 48 years old
Names of parents Jan and Maria
Place of residence Radom, Dolna Street 19, Railway Home
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

On 14 October 1942, my son, Edward Rajski, born on 13 October 1918 in Moscow, an employee at the Arms Factory in Radom, was executed on the gallows near the Arms Factory in Radom.

He was arrested by the Germans at his workplace some three weeks before the execution – I don’t know on what charges. I didn’t see my son alive after he had been arrested.

Having learned that on 12 October 1942 the Germans had executed some Poles in Rożki beside the Kielce road, I went there. I didn’t find my son. But I saw him on the gallows near the Arms Factory on 14 October 1942. I arrived at the site a dozen or so minutes after the execution. The bodies were still hanging from the gallows.

My son was fourth from the right. The bodies were left hanging until 4.00 p.m. People weren’t allowed to get close to the gallows. Next to the gallows the Germans had set up a board containing information that the people hanged on the gallows had been bandits executed for collaborating with other bandits, for supplying them with food and for distributing illegal newspapers.

The Germans also watched the hanging bodies and while doing so behaved in a cynical way, smirking contemptuously. The German women were no different in this regard from the men, in fact sometimes their behavior was even worse.

At about 4.00 p.m., the bodies were loaded onto a car and transported in the direction of Kościuszko Street, where the Gestapo office was located, and further on, somewhere in the direction of the town center. I don’t know where they were buried.

Having been shown a photograph of the people executed near the Arms Factory, the witness testified as follows:

My son is hanging fourth from the right. One can’t see his face here, but, as I have said, I saw him hanging from the gallows and I recognize him by the upper shoes which I gave him when he was in prison.