WŁADYSŁAW LUŻYŃSKI

On 14 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 Władysław Lużyński
Age 29 years old
Names of parents Franciszek and Ludwika
Place of residence Kowala, Kowala commune, Radom district
Occupation laborer
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In the fall of 1942, I was working as a laborer in the German construction company in Rożki. One day in October 1942, I don’t remember the exact date, shortly before an execution in which 15 people were hanged, Gestapo men arrived in Rożki and talked with our boss. After his exchange with the Gestapo men, the boss, a German, gave an order to cut down a number of birch trees from the birch forest situated nearby. He told us that the trees were going to be used for building the gallows. Then we were ordered to build ones opposite the train station, along the railroad track.

We were ordered to carry this out and build the gallows using unhewn birch wood. The whole structure was erected over the railroad ties. Once the gallows were in place, a covered truck arrived from the direction of Radom and six women and nine men alighted from it.

The hangmen led the convicts in groups of five up to the gallows and, after putting nooses around their necks, removed the railroad tie, on which the convicts were standing, from under their feet. The convicts had their hands tied behind their backs. Their mouths weren’t gagged. One of them shouted before his death: "Long live Poland"!

The executed were left hanging from the gallows until 5.00 p.m. Then their bodies were buried near the gallows in a collective grave. Later, in 1944, the Germans burned the bodies or took them somewhere else because they arrived in their cars, screened the site with mats and set about doing something. After their departure, the soil was freshly dug.

There was a board set up next to the gallows. It contained some notice, but I don’t remember what it said. It referred to those who had been executed as "bandits".

I saw the Germans hold up trains passing through Rożki longer than usual, forcing their passengers to read the notice posted on the board and to watch the people hanging by the railroad track.

I didn’t know any one of the people hanged by the Germans, either personally or by sight.

Having been shown a photograph of the gallows in Rożki, the witness testified as follows:

I recognize the gallows shown in the photograph "Rożki I" and "Rożki II". It is the gallows built by people from the company at which I worked. The birch forest that can be seen in the photograph marked as Rożki II has been almost completely cleared.

The report was read out.