JÓZEF OSUCH

Questionnaire
concerning mass executions and mass graves

Township: Kleczanów

Commune: Obrazów

District: Sandomierz

Voivodeship: Kielce

1. Date and place of execution:

From 1942 on, every now and then a group people was brought for an execution to the Kleczanów Forest.

2. Type of execution (shooting, hanging, etc.):

Shooting.

3. Personal data of the murdered victims:

Poles, Jews, foreigners: Poles.

Number of murdered victims: According to the data gathered, 250 people were shot in the Kleczanów Forest throughout that period.

The victims were brought in from: the districts of Sandomierz and Opatów.

Surnames, ages, professions/occupations, addresses:

Mostly from Ostrowiec. I do not have any data pertaining to the murdered who came from other areas. From among the residents of the commune of Obrazów, the following were murdered in the forest:


1) Stanisław Bobrowski, 33 years old, estate administrator in Żurawica, Obrazów commune,
2) Józef Ziemek, resident of Osiny village, Lipnik commune,
3) Wincenty Gawron, resident of Osiny village, Lipnik commune.

4. Is it known what the victims were accused of, whether the execution was carried out in retaliation, etc.?

The executions were carried out for membership in illegal organizations.

5. Who carried out the execution (gendarmes, Gestapo men, SS men, policemen, the Wehrmacht)?

German gendarmes.

6. Are the surnames of the perpetrators known (provide the surnames if known)?

The surnames of the perpetrators are unknown.

7. Were the corpses burnt or destroyed otherwise?

After each execution the murdered were buried in common graves at the execution site.

8. Where were the corpses buried (provide the exact location)?

In the Kleczanów Forest, at the execution site.

9. Description of the place of burial (graves, dimensions, estimated number of victims buried in one grave):

Dimensions of the graves are unknown, as they no longer exist.

10. Were the corpses exhumed, were they officially reinterred (report)? If “yes” to the latter, then where?

There was no official exhumation. Some time after the execution, the families – who had followed their relatives – secretly uncovered the graves and took the corpses.

11. Are there any grounds for conducting their exhumation in the future?

No.

On 17 September 1945, the contents of the above questionnaire were officially confirmed by the head of Obrazów commune, Józef Osuch, with the Municipal Court in Sandomierz.