MIECZYSŁAW KOWALSKI

On 28 June 1946 in Lublin, the Municipal Court in Lublin, Criminal Division, in the person of Judge M. Ptaszyński, interviewed the witness mentioned below, without oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Mieczysław Kowalski
Age 36
Parents’ names Ignacy and Maria
Place of residence Lublin, Narutowicza Street 36, flat 6
Occupation merchant
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

In the spring of 1941 in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, I met Zbigniew Sadzikowski from Lublin, whom I had known personally before the war. At that time he belonged to the penal company and had a white and red badge on his back. I would like to emphasize that the SS men treated all people who wore such badges worse than other prisoners.

At the end of the summer of 1941, while I was working in the penal company in a gravel pit, in the so-called Kiesgrube, at some point I heard an SS man instructing prisoners who were not part of the penal company to fall to the ground. Immediately afterwards, we heard a series of machine-gun volleys directed towards the penal company. Lying on the ground, I saw that, among others, Zbigniew Sadzikowski had fallen down a few steps away. When the gunshots stopped, we were ordered to get up and I saw Sadzikowski lying still with a large bloodstain on his jacket near his stomach. I do not know what happened to Sadzikowski later on, because it was the last time I saw him. I would like to mention that at that time the penal company consisted of about 600 prisoners. I cannot say exactly how many of them were killed in that action, because our unit was immediately transferred to a different work section. That action was probably caused by the fact that a large number of prisoners from the penal company had abandoned their work and started walking towards the SS men because they wanted to get shot.

The report was read out.