SŁOMKA TOMASZ

Kielce, 13 June 1948 at 10.00 a.m. Jan Zielono from the Investigative Office of the Citizens’ Militia in Kielce, with the participation of court reporter Zygmunt Winter, interviewed 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 Tomasz Słomka
Parents’ names Wincenty and Antonina, née Jasińska
Age 55 years old
Date of birth 18 November 1893
Place of birth Chmielnik
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation shoemaker
Place of residence Kielce, Żelazna Street 11

On 14 October 1943 I was arrested by the Gestapo and put in the prison in Kielce. Bolesław Matla was taken on the same day. On that day, 27 people were arrested as hostages.

We spent three months in Kielce prison. During that time, whenever a German was killed, several men were picked out from among us and taken for "examination". During the ‘examinations’ the men were beaten so severely that they no longer looked like human beings. Once such an ‘examination’ was over, those who had been ‘examined’ were brought back to their cells. The following day (sometimes on the same day), with their hands tied up behind their back, they were loaded onto trucks. Those of them who found it hard to get into trucks were kicked by the Germans.

Bolesław Matla’s colleague, Jaszczyński, who was a Gestapo informer, revealed to the Germans that Matla was a communist. Matla was ‘examined’ twice, being horribly beaten by Gestapo-men. After the second ‘examination’ he was taken away from prison.

After I was released from prison I learned that he had been killed and buried in Herby.

The report was read out.