JAN ŁAPACKI

On 16 November 1948 the Magistrates’ Court in Zwoleń, with Judge Łowicki presiding and with the participation of a reporter, Mr Gwarek, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the judge took an oath therefrom, following which the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jan Łapacki
Age 35 years old
Parents’ names Tomasz and Tekla
Place of residence Zamość, commune of Grabów
Occupation farmer
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties the brother-in-law of Józef Śmietanka

On 10 July 1942 I looked out from my farmyard in the village of Zamość and saw a motor car with 4 gendarmes drive up to the blacksmith’s shop of Józef Śmietanka. The German’s entered Śmietanka’s smithy, ordered him to dress, and took him with them. They drove to the village of Stefanów, but when they returned Śmietanka was no longer with them. On that day I learned that Józef and Bronisław Śmietanka had been shot dead by the gendarmes in the fields near the village of Babin. I don’t know the reasons for the execution, although I’m aware that it was carried out by gendarmes from Zwoleń, for I recognized two of them – Hajt and Kult. The bodies of the Śmietanka brothers were reinterred at the cemetery in 1945. I took part in their exhumation.