On 3 June 1987 in Lublin Piotr Michałowski (MA), prosecutor for the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Lublin, proceeding in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws No. 51, item 293) and Article 129 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, personally interviewed the witness named below. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false statements, the witness confirmed with his own signature that he had been informed of this liability (Article 172 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The witness then testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisław Lubkiewicz |
| Parents’ names | Leon and Aniela, née Bujalska |
| Date and place of birth | 18 October 1913, Sadowne |
| Place of residence | Sadowne, Sadowne commune, Siedlce voivodeship |
| Occupation | retiree |
| Education | 7 years of elementary school |
| Criminal record for perjury | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
When the Hitlerite occupation started following the German-Polish war in September 1939, I was living in the village of Zieleniec, Sadowne commune, Węgrów district at the time, Lublin voivodeship, with the parents of my wife Helena, née Poślad.
At the house owned by my mother-in-law Adela Poślad I built a small stove and was baking bread. It was illegal, since I didn’t have the license issued by the German administration. I sold this bread in secret to the Polish and Jewish locals.
In 1941 – if I remember correctly – the Germans organized a ghetto in Zieleniec-Działki where they concentrated Jewish residents from the settlement of Sadowne, from Stoczek, Zieleniec and local villages. The Poles would buy bread from me and secretly deliver it to the Jews. Jews would often come to me at night and I would also sell them bread. In many cases I gave it to them for free when they said that they couldn’t afford to pay for it. Today I recall the following [names] of the Jews whom I would give free bread: Chacek, Zelman, the Jewess Ruchla, and others whose first and last names I don’t recall anymore.
During military operations which went on in Sadowne, among other places, in September 1939, my parents’ house was burned, but the bakery and straw-covered shack were left standing. My parents lived there with their son Stefan, born in 1918, a bachelor, and daughter Irena, born in 1932.
Sometime in early 1942 I received permission from the head of the Sadowne commune to bake bread within set quotas, which was to be sold to the Polish populace on the basis of ration cards. I baked this bread with my father Leon in his bakery. However, until the end of 194[?] my father baked bread in secret and sold it to Poles and to Jews hiding in shelters in the forests known as Jagiel. I know that my father Leon Lubkiewicz handed out free bread to Jews in hiding at that time.
In late 1942 I built a bakery with adjacent accommodation in Sadowne. There in early 1942 I began to bake bread subject to quotas, moving the license to my bakery. I moved to the settlement of Sadowne with my family. My father, however, continued to bake bread in his bakery, only in secret. It was noted in my brother Stefan Lubkiewicz’s identification card (the Kennkarte) that he was employed in my bakery, when in fact he was baking bread with my father in his bakery. The two bakeries were 200–250 meters apart.
On [1]3 January 1943 around 20 gendarmes arrived in Sadowne; I don’t know where they came from. They stopped at a local school. The Poles said that it was some kind of a German punitive expedition. At the time my brother Stefan was at my bakery shop; I told him to go warn our father not to sell bread that day. My brother went and after some time returned all frightened. He said that the gendarmes were in the house and told our mother that they would teach our father a lesson. I advised my brother Stefan to escape, but he refused and stayed with me.
I went to the local canteen because I wanted to meet with the village head, but I didn’t find him there, [so] I returned home. When I was entering the yard, I heard somebody shouting “Halt!”. I saw a gendarme who checked my documents. I replied that I was the owner of this bakery. The gendarme [illegible] said: “You’ll be warm anyway.”
They left the house. I heard two gunshots, one near our house, the other near the house of my neighbor Tadeusz Sobótka (who’s still alive). I didn’t yet believe that those Germans shot my father Leon, my stepmother Marianna and my brother Stefan. Then, those two gendarmes left my house. They soon came for me and told me (the gendarme spoke Polish): “Your parents and brother were shot, you better beg God that you’re not guilty, or you’ll share their fate, because they gave bread to a Jewess.” When they killed my parents and brother it was probably 9:00 p.m. on 13 January 1943.
I only left the house in the morning, since I was afraid to do so earlier. I saw those shot: my father Leon and stepmother Marianna. They each had a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. My brother lay shot next to Tadeusz Sobótka’s cellar across the street – he was trying to escape, and the gendarme shot him twice. [My brother] had a wound to the chest. On the orders of the Germans those killed were buried by the residents of Sadowne in an earth pit in the settlement.
I was inside my parents’ house after they were killed and noted that those gendarmes robbed my parents, taking about three tons of flour, three rugs, a fur coat, 3–5 suits, including one [belonging to] my brother, and other possessions which I don’t remember [anymore]. They pulled the shoes off my brother’s body – new leather calf boots. From the body of my mother Marianna her golden earrings, a gold wedding band and a gold ring were removed.
The Jewess I mentioned was stopped about 200–300 meters from the bakery, carrying bread she had received from my parents. The bread taken from the Jewess – I don’t know her first or last name – was brought to my home by the gendarmes to be identified and was left there.
I obtained permission to bury my parents and brother in a cemetery and I buried them in the settlement of Sadowne, in a Roman Catholic cemetery. I ran the bakery until the end of the occupation, that is until the summer of 1944 and provided the bread baked there to Jews in secret. I also sold it to Poles, who delivered it to Jews in hiding.
I hereby file a copy of the death certificates of Leon and Marianna Lubkiewicz (a married couple) and my brother Stefan Lubkiewicz, killed by the Germans on 13 January 1943 in Sadowne. My sister Irena died in 1980 or 1982. These events are known to Stefan Tomaszewski, about 62 years old, resident of Sadowne.
At this the report was concluded and read out. I have signed the report after having confirmed it is consistent with my testimony.