On 20 March 1947, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, Branch Office in Busko-Zdrój, presided over by a member of the Commission, Busko-Zdrój Municipal Court Judge Aleksy Lebiediew, and with the participation of a reporter, court registrar Czesław Krysiński, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the Judge took an oath therefrom pursuant to the provisions of Articles 111–113 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, following which the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Franciszek Piskorek |
| Age | 55 years old |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Anna |
| Place of residence | Busko-Zdrój, Partyzantów Street |
| Occupation | an employee of a cooperative |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
After the Germans seized power in Poland in 1939, I was forced, along with some others, to resume my police service under the threat of punishment. I served in the police during the occupation in the Precinct of the Polish Criminal Police in Busko.
At first, there was only the Precinct of the German Criminal Police (SD Kriminalkommissariat) in Busko.
Political cases in this district at that time were dealt with by the Gestapo from Radom, Kielce, and Jędrzejów.
In 1942 or at the beginning of 1943, due to the intensification of the activities of clandestine organizations, a Precinct of the Political Police (Gestapo – Geheime Staatspolizei) was established in Busko. Peters was the head of this Precinct, and he was aided by a translator – a Volksdeutscher, Bronisław Kühn from Radom. The Precinct was located in the building at 3 Maja Street, formerly occupied by doctor Byrkowski.
When the activities of partisans became too dangerous for the Germans, who feared a potential attack on the Gestapo headquarters, the Precinct and the detention room were moved to another building, which housed the Precinct of the Polish Criminal Police. Peters and Kühn were ruthless towards the Poles. They performed their functions with extreme brutality and cruelty, which brought on an assassination. After Peters was killed, Kühn left Busko.
Peters was succeeded by Matschke, and Fryderyk Sibeneichler-Zieliński from Radom (a Volksdeutscher) then served as a translator. Their methods were no different from those used by their predecessors – they harassed the arrestees and devised various kinds of torture. At some point in their office I happened to see the tools which they would use during interrogations: ropes, whips, oak sticks frayed at the end like an aspergillum, an electric stove with a plate, electric iron, and pliers for clasping arms and legs.
More details concerning these tortures can be provided by Tadeusz Włosiński and Stanisław Kałamaga, residing in Nowy Korczyn, as they had been interrogated by the Gestapo. The following people were shot in Busko at that time: Ignacy Dziurda, Zofia Dytkowska, Żurkiewicz’s daughter, Marceli Jastrząb, Franciszek Naskręt, and others. Driver Hans Hanzel from Opawa Morawska, who enjoyed taking part in the killing of Poles and Jews, always drove the Gestapo men to executions.
In 1944, in the corridor of the detention room I saw the corpse of a murdered man, and later found out that it was one Pszczoła, lieutenant of the Home Army from Czarkowa. The arrestees said that one night the commissioner of the German Police, Peter Petraschke from Hamburg, had entered the detention room with another Gestapo man, then they led Pszczoła outside and shot him in the corridor. A teacher, Jasiński from Jurkowo, was also very brutally beaten during an interrogation. I happened to see him three days after his arrest, and at that point he was completely broken physically. Jasiński is dead, but I cannot clarify whether he died because of the beating or whether he was shot.
The Gestapo killed many Poles and Jews in this area, but I cannot provide their number or names.
I had the opportunity to observe people imprisoned in detention rooms and in Pińczów prison, and I noticed that many arrestees were at the disposal of Kreislandwirt [district farming inspector] Wagner, who worked at the German governor’s office in Busko. These people remained in detention rooms and in prison for several months without being interrogated. Some people had been a couple of kilograms of grain short with regards to food requisitions and were not released even after their families provided the missing part. Some people’s names weren’t included in the records of detainees – they were put in the records some time later during a prison inspection in Pińczów, and released after interrogations conducted by the German police, often as a result of the intervention of the Polish members of the prison staff.
I confirm that this is my testimony.
The report was read out.