Łódź, 9 July 1946. Investigative Judge S. Krzyżanowska, with the participation of a recording person and in the presence of the parties, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Franciszek Kielan |
| Age | 48 |
| Names of parents | Walenty and Katarzyna |
| Place of residence | Łódź, Teresy Street 28b, Julianów |
| Occupation | cooperative officer |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
During the German occupation I worked in the Revision Association of Cooperatives [Związek Rewizyjny Spółdzielni], holding the function of the head of the agricultural and trade associations department. These cooperatives were forced by the German authorities to collect grain, eggs and other quotas from farmers.
Upon the order of underground authorities I investigated agricultural and supply issues within the Warsaw province. I know that the occupation authorities set relatively high quotas for agricultural products. The system was that quotas were set for particular districts by the nutrition and agriculture department in Cracow. The district departments determined global amounts for the counties, counties set quotas for communes, communes for communities, and communities for particular farms. With each of these links the quantity of the quotas was increased, creating a sort of a reserve in case there were difficulties with collecting the prescribed quotas, so that before an order reached a farm, the theoretical amount of the quota was increased sometimes even by thirty to fifty per cent.
Quotas differed depending on the category of soil, and were variable. Theoretically, the quotas were equal to anywhere from two hundred to six hundred kilograms of grain from a hectare. In practice, even one thousand kilograms could be collected from a hectare, in particular in case of good soil. This sometimes constituted fifty to eighty per cent of the entire plant production.
Apart from grain, quotas were set for potatoes (around five hundred kilograms from a hectare, calculated based on the entire land in a farmer’s possession). The annual quota of milk was equal to eight hundred liters from a cow, of meat – as far as I remember – around sixteen kilograms from a hectare, of eggs – seventy-two eggs from a hen. Moreover, certain quantities of poultry, honey, wool, feathers, sugar beets, flax or hemp seed, and so on, but I don’t remember the quotas. Vegetable and horticulture farms were charged with considerable vegetable and fruit quotas as well, but I don’t remember them either.
The reality was that a farmer was supposed to deliver everything he produced, leaving for himself only as much as was necessary to sow and feed his family. He was not allowed to sell anything that was left, since free trade was prohibited under pain of death. He could have grain milled in a mill on the basis of the so-called milling card, in the quantity of thirty kilograms a month per capita.
For the delivered products a farmer could acquire small quantities of the so-called bonus goods at fixed prices, on the basis of points. The number of the awarded points depended on the kind of goods he delivered. For example, for one hundred kilograms of rye a farmer would get 10 points, which more or less translated to half a liter of vodka, thirty cigarettes, a quarter of a kilogram of nails, one pair of socks, a pack of whitening and a small household item (a mug, a plate). The points were so fragmented that in practice farmers got mainly vodka and cigarettes. Other bonus goods were of no great importance. Moreover, sale of bonus goods – apart from vodka and cigarettes – took place mainly in privileged German stores, in which Poles were cheated. Germans made millions on this, selling goods at market prices, potentially at slightly lower prices.
Farmers were obliged to deliver the quotas to specified collection points. Collection, storage and dispatch of goods was handled by agricultural and trade cooperatives, which were governed by German commissars. If a community did not deliver the imposed quota, then the county office sent gendarmes, potentially the so-called “blacks”, to a village, and there they would ruthlessly force the resisting farmers to deliver, often confiscating all the reserves a farmer had. As forms of repression, non-delivery of quotas was penalized with arrest, labor camp or penal camp.
As I have mentioned, free trade was prohibited. Despite serious penalties and general seizure of goods smuggled to cities, such trade still existed, which to a considerable extent made it possible for the urban population to survive. Brutal treatment of the smugglers [szmuglerz], beating, arrest, sending them to camps, did not prevent people from making trips to the country and bringing goods to cities.
The collected quotas were almost entirely sent to feed the German population. Bread was an exception. In case of bread, people received food tickets for thirty dekagrams of bread a day per person. Moreover, marmalade and sugar were sold, sporadically and in minimum quantities. Yet, the district population did not receive any tickets for butter, honey, poultry, or meat. All of this was sent to stores and canteens for Germans only.
I present at the [court’s] disposal a brochure of the Bonus Action from 1943/44 from the territory of the General Government [Generalne Gubernatorstwo]. More details about the supply in the General Government can be provided by witness Tadeusz Zimiak, former head of the grain department of the Landwirtschaftliche Zentralle Stelle of the Warsaw district.