On 15 August 1947 in Staszów, Albin Walkiewicz, lawyer in Staszów, member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, Staszów branch, heard 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 | Tadeusz Skrzek |
| Age | 23 |
| Parents’ names | Józef and Agnieszka |
| Place of residence | Zdzieci, Połaniec commune, Sandomierz district |
| Occupation | farmer |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
During the German occupation, I lived in the village of Zdzieci, Połaniec commune. In the spring of 1943, we were alerted that the Germans were approaching our village. It was widely known that the Germans came to villages either to round up people and take them to work in Germany, or in connection with quotas or investigations and to look for partisans, and whenever they came to a village they would beat and even kill people who, from their point of view, had done something wrong or even hadn’t done anything – so the population always fled into the fields whenever the Germans were approaching.
It happened in this case, too. The Germans started shooting at the fleeing people, but they did not get [hit] anyone. After arriving in the village, they went to the homestead of Stanisław Fecek, who was around 70 years old, and they started to beat him, [which] my mother saw. Fecek was deaf. The Germans demanded that he give them the location of the Jews and partisans. This old man could not know where the Jews were or who belonged to the partisans, because he did not participate in the normal life of the area, as he was old and deaf. His body was massacred mercilessly. The village chief from Łubnica, Stopnica district, was with these Germans; also an older man who knew Fecek well. Fecek threw himself at his feet (this village chief was a German colonist) and begged him to explainto the Germans that he doesn’t know anything. Nothing helped – they shot dead the beaten and unconscious Fecek.
On the same day, a mother sent a 12-year-old boy, Podsiadły, to another village to her daughter. The boy was walking quite quickly; the Germans saw it. They began to shoot at him and [the bullets] hit him. Then they walked up to him, because he was still alive, shot him in the head, but even this did not take his life; he suffered for several hours until he died.
That day, the Germans beat a number of people, they simply beat whoever they came across and caught. I don’t know what formation this was. Rösler (a colonist from Sielec) was with them, and later – I heard – [was] shot by partisans. Rösler was a murderer and he killed many Poles.
The Germans arrived several times in connection with the quotas, i.e., the military police. Once they came, [they did] an unexpected raid and took several dozen cows for not delivering the quotas. They took cows away even from those who were behind by even the smallest amount of the quota, which, by the way, they had to give up anyway. Every such arrival came down to just beating people. They would beat [people] with thick clubs, they’d beat faces, [and] wherever [else they could]. Sometimes, it would take them weeks to recover, like, for example, Piotr Podsiadły. They beat up Podsiadły because his father defended the villagers when the Germans were hurting them – he demanded that the authorities should act in accordance with the regulations they issued – so their own.
The soil here is very poor. The quota was so designated that it was necessary to give away the entire field harvest, so there was nothing to live on, and this was rather the reason for lagging behind [on] the conditions. The population lived only from what they managed to hide and not give to the Germans, or what was earned, and foodstuff was obtained illegally wherever possible. That’s how those who were forced to give up their entire quota would live.
Some of the farmers, such as Łabidowski, Kaczmarski, [and] Podsiadły, were resettled from their homesteads for not giving away their quota, and [they] were given to others.
When those selected to go to Germany did not go, the military police came and forcefully took not only those selected but also several members of their family. I don’t know the names of the German criminals. I do not know anything more.
The report was read out.