WINCENTY KACZMAREK

On 13 March 1947 in Środa [Wielkopolska] Investigating Judge Posuwski heard the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. The witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Wincenty Kaczmarek
Age 42 years old
Parents’ names Tomasz and Katarzyna, née Lis
Place of residence Środa, Sokoła Street 4
Occupation senior district official
Religion Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In 1939 I was deported from Środa to Parysów, district of Garwolin, where until March 1943 I worked as a reckoner at the Parysów communal board. In March 1943 the suspect, Dauner, arrived in Parysów in order to review the functioning of the communal board; he was then deputy to the Kreishauptmann in Garwolin. This was the first time that I met him. When Dauner learned that I was good at bookkeeping, he had me transferred to Garwolin, where I was to work as a secretary in the district department. I occupied this post from April 1943 until July 1944, when the Germans fled, however I communicated with Dauner infrequently, for he was less interested in this department and gave us relative freedom of action.

I think that I myself had only two altercations with him. The first was when, at the very beginning of my employment in Garwolin, he threatened me with a labor camp when I was unable to submit some files which – as it later transpired – had been in his office all the time.

The second incident occurred when, suspecting that I and other employees of the district department had illegally withdrawn monies from the Communal Savings Fund, he made a terrible scene, showering us with the most vulgar abuse. He also threatened that we would be arrested and deported to a labor camp.

This was more or less in January 1944. However, he did not hit anyone at the time, and indeed I personally never saw Dauner beating any Poles, although I heard that such acts of violence did sometimes take place. And thus, for example, it was said that while refugees were being received at the train station in Garwolin or Piława, he kicked one Paweł Michalik, who at the time was an inspector of the communal self-government in Garwolin, and after the War occupied the position of senior district official in Dzierżanów. Generally speaking, Dauner was viewed in Garwolin as a “hater of Poles”, who would treat all Poles brutally.

In June 1944 – if I remember correctly – Polish partisans killed the Kreishauptmann of Garwolin, whereupon the suspect, Dauner, assumed his duties for a few weeks. During this period, the Germans picked out 30 Polish arrestees and executed them in Garwolin, in retaliation for the slaying of the Kreishauptmann. Without a doubt, Dauner was the plan’s instigator.

My contacts with Dauner, few and far between, did not give me any insight into his character. Hereunder I would like to mention persons who were particularly picked on by him and may therefore know more details of his activities:

1) Bierkenfeld, Alfons I think, but I know neither his address, nor indeed whether he is alive;
2) Góralewicz, I have forgotten her name and do not know her address, the wife of a former public prosecutor from Poznań; she worked for Dauner as a typist;
3) Franciszek Barski, the head of the general department at the Voivodeship Office in Bydgoszcz, who during the War worked at the office of the district authorities in Garwolin;
4) Mieczysław Zajdler, currently living somewhere in the district of Warsaw, who was employed at the district office in Garwolin;
5) Mieczysław Lindelski, currently a fire brigade instructor in Garwolin.

I have read the report before affixing my signature hereto.