On 22 November 1947 in Radom, the [District] Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes with its seat in Radom, this in the person of a member of the Commission, lawyer Zygmunt Glogier, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Helena Majda |
| Age | 62 |
| Parents’ names | Stanisław, Salomea née Gruszczyńska |
| Place of residence | Radom, Jagielloński Square |
| Occupation | none |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was a prison guard in Radom in the period between 15 December 1920 and 2 November 1945. The female ward was situated on the ground floor and you could see through the hall windows what was happening in the so-called secret courtyard.
I don’t recall whether there were any large-scale executions in 1939. But in 1940 they became much more regular.
On the first Saturday after Easter, a large group of 146 men was brought in from near Chlewiska, including four young boys, who seemed to be school pupils. Some of them were placed in female cells. Two cells were taken. I could see that almost all of them had already been beaten. The gendarmerie brought them in, and they were also the ones to watch over them. At this time they were led out in groups into the secret courtyard, where they had to perform so-called gymnastics. They were all ordered to kneel and walk quickly on their knees around the courtyard, and they were beaten with rubbers and something like an oak bat. The gymnastics lasted up to half an hour for each group of prisoners – those who couldn’t move were beaten again. I saw inmates badly battered and covered with blood being hustled back to their cells.
Then I saw these prisoners being taken away for interrogation, and then – in batches of 20 – thrown onto a vehicle that went back and forth. All 146 of them were sent to Firlej to be executed by shooting. I saw how they were stripped in the courtyard, how anything that suggested any quality was confiscated, and how their hands were tied with string and wires. In the courtyard some Gestapo man – a tall, slim blond – read out the surnames, announcing that they had been sentenced to death. I also saw how the four young boys were put aside by the Gestapo man, who went to the office to call somebody. When he came back he ordered them to be loaded onto the vehicle.
After emptying the female cells of male prisoners, who were probably executed, sergeant Guncelman [Guntzelmann] came and told the female prisoners to wash the blood off the walls, benches and tables, even telling them to scratch off the marks, and they did that.
In the same year, but – I believe – in June, a batch of around 60 people was brought to the female ward and they were also transported to Firlej, where they were shot, in the same way. I also remember when in the same year, 1940, 11 engineers were brought in from Skarżysko; they were taken to Firlej after several days, after first being stripped of their furs. Another engineer from Starachowice – Grochowski or Grocholski – was shot at that time, because he didn’t want to reveal the secret behind the production of anti-aircraft cannons to the Germans.
By the end of the year, maybe in autumn, around 120 men and 7 women were deported, after being stripped in the secret courtyard. Where these people were from, I don’t know. Throughout the whole of 1940 there were gymnastics and beatings carried out in the secret courtyard for the slightest offenses. In my opinion, as much as several hundred people could have been taken away for executions that year. In the years 1941, 1942, 1943, and 1944, prisoners were deported in the same way, after having been stripped before each execution – these were smaller batches though, several or a dozen people each. I’m not able to give the exact dates.
Overall, in the period when I was on duty, up to two thousand people could have been taken away to be executed by shooting – from my ward, between 1939 and 1945, not counting the Jews, around 16 women were taken to be executed. I need to mention that prostitutes wouldn’t be shot, but sent to the camps, and a couple of them actually returned. According to what I heard, criminal prisoners and recidivists were being executed.
Women from my ward were often taken for interrogation on Kościuszki Street. They usually returned badly battered – to such an extent that they couldn’t get up from bed for the next few days. Chmurowa and Włodarzowa were beaten so terribly, and then shot dead. Both were accused of cooperating with illegal organizations. I remember when in 1943 some woman was brought in from Warsaw, and she was beaten so terribly during the interrogation that she died during the night.
The Gestapo men’s surnames – except Koch and Fuchs, whom I knew by sight – I can’t recall.
I made a full testimony.
The report was read out.