On 21 February 1948 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 | Franciszek Kulawik |
Age | 50 |
Parents’ names | Wacław, Jadwiga |
Place of residence | Radom, 1 Maja Street 72 flat 24 |
Occupation | [a counting person?] |
Criminal record | none |
Relationship to the parties | none |
On 30 April 1943 in Radom, I was arrested along with my whole family by the local Gestapo. We were taken to the prison in Radom, where I was placed in the Politische Abteilung.
At the time we were arrested there was a large-scale campaign of arrests being carried out in Radom, and over 300 people were captured. It was supposedly in retaliation for an assault on [illegible] of the police, thus the arrests.
I was taken to Kościuszki Street more than a dozen times. I was constantly beaten during the interrogations, two times very badly. I was accused of taking part in the assault, of belonging to underground organizations and issuing fake IDs for Poles and Jews. Due to German interventions, 16 people out of the group of the arrested were released. 30 men and 7 women were left in jail, the rest were deported to Auschwitz the day after.
On Kościuszki Street I was interrogated on the third floor, in the office, by the so-called Bloody Staś, who also beat me. On the fourth floor, the so called górka, I was hung on a swing and beaten. There was a dentistry chair there and a rope hanging – they would pull the cuffs behind me, pulling me up and beating me on my heels with whips. I was interrogated in such a way by an individual [illegible], with a tiny mustache, red hair. When I collapsed after receiving such a beating, they would release me off the rope and pour water over me, and then I was beaten again. The one who beat me read a statement at the end that said I didn’t confess to anything, but because I was a Pole I was to be placed in a detention camp.
After that statement I was deported to Auschwitz along with around a hundred other people. We’d been tied together with string beforehand. Before we left we were ordered to lie in the prison corridor, and then to kneel in the courtyard.
I was in Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and finally in the so-called 8 Bauszuc [Bautenschutz?] SS-Brigade. I was released by Americans on 3 May 1945 in the town of Bergen in Bavaria.
I hereabove testified.