ANTONI ŻYŁA

Serbinów, 8 January 1948. At 1:50 PM, acting on the basis of Article 20 of the implementing provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure [and] Article 257 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, due to the absence of a judge and in view of the fact that delay could result in the disappearance of traces or evidence of the crime, which would have been obliterated before the arrival of a judge, observing the formal requirements listed in Articles 235–240, 258, and 259 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I, Władysław Fituch from the Investigation Department of District Citizens’ Militia station in Kielce, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the significance of the oath and of the right to refuse testimony for reasons listed in Article 140 of the Penal Code, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Antoni Żyła
Parents’ names Antoni and Marianna, née Woźniak
Date and place of birth 17 August 1907, Serbinów, Mniów commune, Kielce district
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation farmer
Place of residence Serbinów, Mniów commune, Kielce district
Relationship to the parties none

Regarding the present case, I am aware of the following facts: In May 1943, German gendarmes, Gestapo officers from Kielce, burned alive the following people: Agata Sikora with her children Mieczysław and Maria; Ewa Kruk with her grandchildren Eugeniusz, Jan, Maria, and Józef; Jan Kruk’s children; Feliks Kluś and his son Piotr. The accusation made against them was that Jan Kruk, their father, was a member of an underground organization and that they carried food for the partisans to the forest. The victims’ bodies were buried in the same place where they were burned. They had been burned in Władysław Kruk’s house in the village of Serbinów, Mniów commune. Now, after the liberation of Poland, the victims’ bodies were transferred to the parish cemetery in Mniów.

On the same day, Maria Adach was burned together with his daughter Irena Adach in their house in the village of Podchyby, Mniów commune. Their bodies after that were buried at the site where that happened, and by now they have been transported to Mniów, to the parish cemetery. The gendarmes had a list of everyone to be burned. All the people who were burned were told to enter the house, and when they did, the Germans threw grenades into the flat through the window. Screams were heard. When the victims were burning, the Germans deliberately turned on the engines of their cars so that no one would hear the screams in the yard.

I know that the ones who denounced [these people] to the Germans were Wincenty Marczewski and Władysław Kotwica. They were informers for the Germans. Wincenty Marczewski and Władysław Kotwica were shot by Polish partisans after the Germans burned Poles in Serbinów. I was taken by the partisans to dig a pit for their bodies. They were shot in Jan Kruk’s field. I heard the commander of the partisan unit read out the judgment to them, saying that they were to be shot for accusing the Poles of belonging to an underground organization. Both of them, Marczewski and Kotwica, pleaded guilty.

I have said everything. I sign[ed] [the report] after having it read out to me.