PIOTR MARZEC

In Sydół on this day, 9 April 1948, at 7.00 a.m., I, Zenon Wilk from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station in Kozienice, acting under Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, following instructions from the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom issued on 31 March 1948 (L. 532/48/2) under Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, observing the formal requirements set forward in Articles 235–240, 258 and 259 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with the participation of a reporter, a Militia functionary from Zwoleń, Władysław Adamczyk, whom I have informed of his obligation to attest to the conformity of the report with the actual course of the procedure by his own signature, have heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the right to refuse to testify for the reasons set forward in Article 104 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and of the criminal liability for making false declarations, this pursuant to the provisions of Article 140 of the Penal Code, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Piotr Marzec
Parents’ names Józef and Wiktoria, née Sałko
Age 62 years old
Place of birth Sydół, commune of Grabów nad Wisłą
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation farmer
Place of residence Sydół, commune of Grabów nad Wisłą
Relationship to the parties none

With regard to the matter at hand, I know the following: on the morning of 18 March 1942 I took a bag and went to the potato clamp situated at a distance of about 100 meters from the forest. That day the Gestapo sealed off all the surrounding villages. When I was picking potatoes, I saw a man trying to escape from the Germans into the forest. The latter rushed after him. When they reached the edge of the forest, they saw me standing by the potato clamp and started shooting. A bullet from one of them hit me in the neck. It struck my spine, knocked my tooth out and exited out of my mouth. When the Germans saw I had fallen down, they didn’t come to me right away but went to the village to get spades to bury me. In the meantime I got up and, following side roads, went home, leaving a big pool of clotted blood behind.

Upon reaching my destination, I received assistance from my loved ones and thereafter stayed at home. When the Germans returned with their spades to where they had shot me, I was no longer there. There was only a pool of blood. By following the traces I had left, they found my house and stormed inside with their guns ready to fire. Three of them grabbed me by my hands while another two stood to my side with their guns. They dragged me out into the courtyard. Once outside, the oldest of them, about 40 years old, checked the list he had for my name. Then, he talked briefly with the remaining four and they took me back inside, telling my sixteen-year old son to go to Zwoleń and get me a doctor. After that they left. I was taken to the hospital where I spent two months.

I know for certain that on 18 March 1942, some 73 people were executed in Karolin, including Marian Bąk, Adam Rębiś, Stanisław Kowalczyk, Jan Bębeniec, Władysław Kuśmierz and Franciszek Marzec, all of whom were from Sydół in the commune of Grabów nad Wisłą. The Germans also killed Wacław Grabowski from Wacławów, Grabowski’s administrator (I don’t remember his name), two Wawrzaks (first names unknown), Jan Sałek, Oleksy Sałek, Wach (first name unknown), and many other people from Karolin and the neighboring villages. They were all shot and thrown into one pit dug by people from Karolin. I heard that the execution had been carried out by the Gestapo and German colonists who had settled in Poland a long time ago and who were considered Polish citizens.

I don’t know what the people I have mentioned above were executed for. I know for certain that they were badly beaten inside the school in Karolin. Tortured into unconsciousness, they were tied together in fives, dragged out of the school and taken to the pit where they were killed. The execution took place at 12.00 p.m. in the courtyard of Józef Gramm, a former Gestapo man and Karolin’s resident. I wish to add that Gestapo men herded many people into the courtyard, forcing them to watch the execution.

At this point the report was concluded, read out and signed.