JÓZEF KWAŚNIEWSKI

Kielce, 31 January 1948, 8.30 a.m. Stanisław Kostera from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station in Kielce, on the instruction of the Prosecutor from the District Court in Kielce, with the participation of court reporter Jan Zielono, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 140 of the Penal Code, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Józef Kwaśniewski
Parents’ names Władysław and Maria, née Chodak
Age 54 years old
Place of birth Piotrkowice, Busko district
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation wheelwright
Place of residence Kielce, Zagnańska Street 23

The camp in the Henryków factory at Młynarska Street 133 in Kielce was established by the Germans in August 1943. The Germans closed the camp in September 1944. There were only Jews in the camp.

On average, there were some 300 prisoners in the camp. I cannot give the number of people who passed through the camp during its period of operation, as the Jews were brought in and taken away all the time. Upon liquidation of the camp, the prisoners were deported to Auschwitz.

The prisoners worked in the carpenter’s, locksmith’s, saddler’s, and wheelwright’s workshops and in the factory yard. The prisoners received the same food as Polish forced laborers.

Towards the end of the camp’s existence, four months before its liquidation, our kitchen had been separated from the Jewish kitchen.

The prisoners had an infirmary in the camp and they received medical assistance. During its period of operation, two prisoners died in the camp.

Executions in the camp took place allegedly twice, both by hanging. The first time, three prisoners from the camp were hanged, and they remained hanging on the gallows for 12 hours, just by the prisoners’ kitchen. They were hanged by their fellow prisoners on the order of Gaier. The prisoners in the camp were treated all the same: if a prisoner didn’t work and slacked off, he would be immediately beaten by the prisoners themselves, who were chosen by the Germans for this. Some four months after the first execution, two or three prisoners were hanged on the same spot. The hanged prisoners were buried outside the factory premises. The corpses were not destroyed.

No material evidence survived.

There were the following prisoners in the camp:

1) Szpigiel

2) Chelfant, currently residing in Łódź
3) two brothers by the name of Dębski
4) two brothers by the name of Zielono-Dnowo
5) Margiel
6) Rakoski.

I cannot give the surnames of the Germans from the camp. The camp was headed by Fuss, a German with the rank of captain. I have just recalled and I would like to add that before the first execution of the prisoners, there had been an execution by hanging of ten Poles who had been brought from town and then buried in the park within the Ghetto.

At this point the report was concluded, read out and signed.