JAN KRÓLIKOWSKI

On 18 April 1946, the Municipal Court in Opatów, represented by Judge Al. Zalewski, with the participation of reporter J. Kwiatkowski, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the judge swore the witness in accordance with Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, whereupon the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jan Królikowski
Age born on 28 May 1905
Parents’ names Marian and Maria née Nowacka
Place of residence Opatów, Rynek 28
Occupation tinsmith
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In the evening of 8 to 9 March 1942, the former SD interpreter Tadeusz Teodorczyk entered our house and, drawing a revolver, dragged my brother Kazimierz out of bed and detained him in the local detention center. Teodorczyk did not mention the reason for my brother’s arrest. Later, I found out that he had been denounced by Katarzyna Kasprzyk in revenge for having said that she had physical relations with the Germans, which was widely known to be true and caused general indignation.

During my brother’s stay in the detention center, he complained to me that Teodorczyk had tortured him mercilessly, which was also confirmed by the large blood stains on the undergarments my brother had returned. After ten days in the local detention center, former criminal police officers Stanislaw Słonka, Tadeusz Teodorczyk, and Nowaczyk, together with the German gendarmerie, loaded my brother, with many other Poles, onto a car and deported them in an unknown direction. Soon after that, I found out from a resident of our city, Cybulska, that she had seen my brother kneeling together with many others at the railway station in Kielce, waiting to be transported further, under the escort of the gendarmerie.

After about two months, the first letter came from my brother from the concentration camp in Gross-Rosen, in which, among other things, he told us to give his respects to Teodorczyk, apparently expressing his resentment and desire for revenge for the arrest and for inflicting moral and physical torture on him. On 12 August 1942, an official notice of my brother’s death came from the concentration camp in Dachau, and his remaining clothing and other belongings were returned. The fact that Teodorczyk abused my brother can be confirmed by: 1) Józef Maj and 2) Michał Zając – both residents of Opatów.

I heard somewhere that Teodorczyk had the worst reputation; he was commonly feared as a local German SD spy, he took part in fighting against the partisans, and (as I saw for myself) he participated in roundups of people for forced labor in Germany. Only his fellow worker from the same office, Stanisław Słonka, was as violent and as brutal as Teodorczyk. In 1942–1943 – I don’t remember the exact date – I saw him beating those detained in the detention center with a thick hornbeam stick; judging by their external appearance, they were probably considered political offenders. Słonka often blackmailed me, as he did almost all the other store owners, extorting from the store various household goods for which he did not pay. I heard that he was also involved in carrying out executions and I saw him go away with the Germans and take part in fighting against the partisans.