PTAK STANISŁAW

30 November 1946, 12.00 p.m., Łopuszno. Edward Kaczor from the Citizens’ Militia in Łopuszno interviewed the person named below as 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 Stanisław Ptak
Parents’ names Kazimierz and Bronisława, née Nowakowska
Age 46 years old
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Father’s occupation farmer
Education two classes of railway school
Place of residence Łopuszno, Łopuszno commune, Kielce district

With regard to the investigation into German crimes committed in the area of the Łopuszno commune, I can provide the following information:

Throughout the occupation I lived in Łopuszno near the building that housed the German gendarmerie.

At the beginning of the occupation, I could see the Germans bringing people from around the region, that is, from the following communes: Zajączków, Piekoszów, Snochowice, Mniów and Łopuszno. The people were locked up in the basements, beaten and set upon by dogs. Some were then taken to Auschwitz and some to Kielce prison. From among the latter, many were executed in the forests around Eustachów, in Michala Góra and near Antonielów.

During the arrests of the Poles, three Jews were shot in the Łopuszno communal lock-up. When Jews were seen trying to escape, they were shot, including individually, in the woods behind the cemetery located at a distance of 1 kilometer from Łopuszno.

The camp was also established in Łopuszno for those who failed to provide mandatory supplies of various products. In it prisoners, fed on carrion, served sentences of up to half a year. There were, on average, 950 people there. The Poles were regularly beaten and tortured.

During Easter 1942, when I was riding in a cart with a doctor from Naramow (Pianów commune, Końskie district), I saw six farmhouses burned down along with their livestock, and 22 people killed in a mass execution. All the people were buried in a single pit, which was dug in the same village in which the execution was carried out. There were also a few wounded whom the locals took to the hospital in Końskie. After two months of perpetrating atrocities in Naramow, local Volksdeutchers, accompanied by troops and gendarmerie, surrounded Skałka Polska village (Oleszno commune, Włoszczowa district). Having taken the livestock, the Germans burned down the whole village, killing all its inhabitants, about 120 people in number.

In 1944, when I was going to Kielce, I saw a fire in the village Młynki (Zajączków commune). The mill was burning, having been set on fire by Gendarmerie from Łopuszno. The whole building along with the people burnt down.

The report was read out.