Kielce, 4 March 1948, 10.00 a.m. Stefan Młodawski from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station in Kielce, acting on the instructions of the Prosecutor from the District Court in Kielce, with the participation of reporter Jan Zielono, heard 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 | Stanisław Gross |
| Parents’ names | Leonard and Ramona |
| Age | 35 years old |
| Place of birth | Sanniki, warszawskie voivodeship |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | shopkeeper |
| Place of residence | Kielce, Focha Street 18, flat 38 |
During the occupation, from 1941 until the liberation, I worked in the prison in Kielce as a warehouseman and a clerk, in the capacity of senior guard.
The camp was established as soon as the Germans entered Poland and was operational until their defeat. The majority of the prisoners were Poles and Jews, but there were also prisoners of other nationalities. There were 800–1,000 prisoners. During its period of operation, some 10,000 people passed through the prison in Kielce. Political prisoners were sent away in a transport in July or August 1944, and the rest (the so-called common prisoners), some 30 people, were arbitrarily released by the Polish prison guards on 15 January 1945.
There were four workshops on the prison premises: a shoemaker’s, a carpenter’s, a tailor’s and a blacksmith’s. Apart from this, the prisoners worked outside the camp, in Huta Ludwików [a foundry] – about 60 people per day; in the Granat factory – about 50 people per day; and in the prison’s farm in Domanowice – 20–30 people per day.
The prisoners received three meals per day. In the morning they got black coffee sweetened with sugar or saccharin (0.5 decagrams of sugar or saccharin per prisoner) and 20 decagrams (later 15) of black bread. There was soup for dinner and also for supper.
There was a prison hospital. There were epidemics in the prison, most often of typhus. As for the death rate, due to epidemics and other diseases approx. 2–10 people died per month. A few death sentences were carried out on Poles, Jews, and others in the prison garden or the dark cell. These executions by shooting were carried out by the Gestapo men.
Outside the prison, the Jewish cemetery in Kielce served as an execution site for Jews, but also for some Poles. Some of the prisoners who were shot to death or died in the prison were taken in a prison cart to the Jewish cemetery, and some were buried by the Social Services Department of the Municipal Board in Kielce at their expense, on the order of the German prison authorities.
There was no crematorium on the prison premises.
All material evidence concerning deported or executed prisoners was kept in the prison storehouse until the liquidation of the prison, but its subsequent fate is unknown to me.
I don’t remember the surnames and addresses of prisoners.
A German called Kunze was the last director of the prison in Kielce, and a Volkdeutscher, Dębiński, was his deputy. Until July 1944 the prison was headed by a German called Struve, and his deputy was an Oberwachtmeister named Bratkowitz. There were also the following guards, Germans and Volksdeutscher: Bolesław Chmielewski, Władysław Kigowski, Stanisław Kotwica, Józef, Kuśmider Stanisław [Kucin], Stanisław Auguściak, Antoni Golach, Zasławski, Fryderych Frai, Teodor Szerge, August Budel, and Bott.
At this the report was concluded, read out and signed.