JAN BŁASZCZYK

On 23 May 1947, the Borough Court in Końskie, represented by Judge J. Helniczek, interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. 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 Jan Błaszczyk
Age 33
Parents’ names Jakub and Maria
Place of residence Village and commune of Sworzyce
Occupation Head of Sworzyce commune
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I have been the head of Sworzyce commune since 22 March 1947. During the occupation, I was deputy commune head in the village of Sworzyce. In May 1943, a small unit – gendarmerie from Końskie, as far as I remember – attacked a partisan unit in Kolonia Ludwikowa, Sworzyce commune. [The gendarmes] surrounded the whole village and burned about five houses, along with the outbuildings. There had been a fight with the partisans, and [the gendarmes] cast the wounded, [who were] still alive, into the fire; they took one of the wounded with them as a prisoner – I don’t know what happened to him later. Twenty- eight partisans were killed there; they were reportedly from the district of Wyroczyn [?]. Among the people killed there was also a woman, Mrs. Kowbownik [?], with a child – an infant; she was burned in a house, having been wounded before that. The partisans were buried by the residents of the village of Sobień, at the site where they had been burned, and I think they are still there. Mrs. Kowbownik [?] is buried with her child in the cemetery in Białouwo [?], Białouwo [?] commune.

In 1944, around 22 March, gendarmes from Końskie surrounded the village of Sobień, Sworzyce commune, and burned a few houses. At these houses, they had trapped about 27 people inside, who died there; these were mostly women and children. These people were later buried in the cemetery in Białouwo [?]. I don’t know the reason for this aggression.