STANIEWSKA MARIA

23 November 1946. Marian Ołowiak, a functionary from the Citizens’ Militia station from Słupia Nowa, 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 Maria Staniewska
Parents’ names Franciszek and Józef
Age 64 years old
Occupation housekeeper
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Place of residence Słupia Nowa, Słupia Nowa commune, Kielce district
Criminal record none

In the morning of 7 July 1942 a group of 12 convicts was brought by car from Kielce to Święty Krzyż. The group included seven people from the area of Słupia Nowa, two from Łopuszno, Kielce district, and three from Słupia Nowa.

The convicts were brought from Święty Krzyż to Słupia Nowa under a strong Gestapo escort and lined up in front of the State Police Station. In the meantime double- branched poles, some of which were equipped with high voltage wires, were being converted into gallows. Local Jews were used for placing tables under the convicts’ legs and putting nooses around their necks. Two men were hanged on each of the poles. During the execution, one of the victims, a teacher named Okulski from Mirocice (Słupia Nowa commune), struggled in pain as his noose was badly tied. He was finished off by Herman Dunkier, who was a Gestapo man and gendarme from Bieliny (Bieliny commune, Kielce district) and who, giving vent to his sadistic impulses, fired at Okulski three times from his revolver.

After the execution, those who were hiding in their houses or in the fields were rounded up by the Germans and forced to look at the dead. Two victims from Łopuszno (Łopuszno commune, Kielce district) were first ordered to help hang ten people. After the hanging, they were escorted by two Gestapo men to Bodzetyńska Street, to the Świątkiewicze Square, where they were suddenly killed with a shot to the back of the head.

The clothes were taken off the bodies of the victims. Left in their underwear, they were buried in a pit that had been dug up earlier by Jews at Bodzetyńska Street.

On 23 May 1944, all the victims were solemnly buried by partisans in the local cemetery.

The report was read out.