FRANCISZEK ANTONIAK

On 28 May 1947, having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Franciszek Antoniak
Age 46
Parents’ names Andrzej and Paulina
Place of residence Village and commune of Borkowice
Occupation Head of Borkowice commune
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

I have been the head of Borkowice commune since 21 December 1945. During the occupation, I lived in the village of Wołów, Odrowąż commune. In 1941, the Gestapo – from Końskie, as far as I remember – arrested Jan Jedynak, Jan Plech, Bronisław Kaczmarczyk, the postmaster (I don’t remember his name), all of them from Stąporków Nowy, and Nowikowski; the owner of [illegible] estate, as well as Jan Martys and Antoni [illegible] from the village of Hucisko, Odrowąż commune. They were all sent to Auschwitz. I don’t know what they were arrested for; none of them returned. About 60 people from the village of Wołów were sent to Germany to do forced labor; apart from this, people from every village were sent to Germany against their will to do forced labor.

In 1943, there was a mass pacification of the inhabitants of the villages of Hucisko, Wołów, Stąporków, and Miła, Odrowąż commune, as a result of [illegible] that these villages maintained contact with partisans. [People] were arrested by a special SS group; I don’t know where that group came from. I think this was also the Końskie Gestapo, units from Radom. These units surrounded the villages. In the village of Hucisko, they arrested Zofia [illegible], Nowak’s wife, the wife of village leader Jedynak, whom they killed on the spot, and about eight other people. From the village of Wołów, they arrested my wife Władysława Antoniak and Zofia [illegible]; from Stąporków: Władysław Jakubowski and another Jakubowski, Nowak’s son [?], Piotrowski, and a few others [illegible] six, who were shot – some of them in Szydłowiec – several days later and buried there; I don’t know what happened to the others. From the village of Miła, they arrested Szymon [illegible]. In the village of Wąglów, Odrowąż commune, they arrested Gula [?], whose first name I don’t remember. In Niekłań, Odrowąż commune, [they arrested] laborer Domagała. [Illegible] was killed by the Gestapo in the prison in Końskie; this was in April 1943. Thirteen people were killed in the Końskie prison at that time, including Jakubczyk, the owner of a shop in the village of Ruski Bród – I don’t know who the others were or where they were from. I know this from my wife, who was imprisoned in Końskie at that time. In the village of Hucisko, Mieczysław Nowak from the village and commune of Mniów, was killed during a manhunt. The other arrestees were sent to Auschwitz and other camps, from which few of them returned.

In the autumn of 1942, the Jews from Odrowąż commune were taken to Końskie by gendarmes from Końskie and by the Blue Police [Polish Police of the General Government]; and [illegible] were taken first to Odrowąż and later to Końskie, from where they were transported by train to Treblinka, according to what people said. During the transport, a number of Jews were killed by the gendarmes.

In 1944, Stefan Szcześniak [?] [and] Władysław [illegible] were arrested in the village of Wołów, Odrowąż commune, and taken to Kielce by the Końskie-based Gestapo; they never returned. Józef [illegible] and several others were taken away from Stąporków Nowy by the Końskie-based Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, where not all of them returned from. Władysław Domagała died in Auschwitz.

In the autumn of 1944, German troops [illegible] with Mongols [probably Asian-looking Russian soldiers, or former Soviet prisoners fighting on the German side] carried out a manhunt in the villages of Odrowąż and Szałas, Kielce district, for collaboration with partisans. In Odrowąż, they burned a residential house in which Wacław Kuliński and three other people died – I don’t remember who they were; they were buried in the cemetery in Odrowąż. About eight people were arrested; this included two [?] Majewskis [?], who were killed on the spot, with [illegible] guns; they were killed near the station of Sołtyków; I don’t know where they are buried. On the same day, in Sołtyków, Odrowąż commune, [illegible] house was burned down; I don’t remember his name. [illegible] wife with a young child and his adult son, whose name I don’t know, were burned inside that house; I don’t know where they were buried.

In the village of Szałas about 40 (!) households were burned down; this was during fighting with the partisans, when we were attacked from the village of Szałas. There were German troops there, as well as Mongols. The partisans numbered about 1,000, and their commander was Colonel Moczar; I was one of them, too. The fighting lasted four days; we lost about 30 people and had to [illegible]. I had joined the partisans – a unit of the People’s Guard [Gwardia Ludowa (GL), an armed communist underground organization, established by the Polish Workers’ Party (PPR)] – in April 1943. We disarmed Blue Police posts in [illegible] and one more near Zagnańsk [?]. Apart from the fighting near the village of Szałas, I took part in combat near the village of Gruszka on 29 October 1944. We were surrounded by German troops and Mongols there; our losses amounted to 23 killed and 38 wounded. At that time the Germans burned down [?] the village of Gruszka and another village, whose name I don’t know, where about 100 households may have been burned down. I don’t know if any inhabitants of those villages were killed, because we retreated [illegible] in small groups at night.

In the spring of 1943, during a skirmish with the Germans near the village of Sielpia – in the Radoszyce commune if I am not mistaken – the Germans (I think they were gendarmes from Końskie) burned down two residential buildings, but without any people inside. We lost three people there, and reportedly two Germans were killed.