JÓZEF CYWKA

On 16 November 1948 the Magistrates’ Court in Zwoleń, with Judge M. Łowicki presiding and with the participation of a reporter, P. Mikulski, 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 Józef Cywka
Age 48 years old
Parents’ names Jan and Katarzyna
Place of residence Przyłęk, commune of Grabów nad Wisłą
Occupation farmer
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In July 1943, one Sunday at the crack of dawn, some 12–13 German gendarmes and Polish Blue Policemen arrived in the village of Przyłęk. They were all dressed in civilian clothes. Amongst them I recognized a gendarme from the Feldgendarmerie station in Zwoleń, one Hajt, and a Blue Policeman from the station in Grabów nad Wisłą, by the surname of Rogalski. They had come for Stanisław Walaszczyk, Bronisław Jóźwik and Bolesław Furga, who were members of the youth laborers’ and had failed to turn up for work. Apart from them, they also detained three other youths, namely: Jan Laseczka, Bolesław Kamiński and Marian Olejarz. They herded them into Władysław Walaszczyk’s farmyard, tied them up with ropes and threw them onto the ground, face first.

At this moment someone shot at the gendarmes from a barn and hit one of them in the leg. The gendarmes started firing at this man and killed him. As it turned out, the victim was one Józef Zuchowicz from the village of Nowa Mszadla, commune of Oblasy. He had been accompanied by another man and a woman, however these associates of his got away. After this incident the gendarmes ordered Władysław Krakowiak and Stefan Filipiak to dig a hole in the country road. Next, the Germans took the bound men, singly or in twos – Jan Laseczka, Bolesław Kamiński, Marian Olejarz, Bolesław Furga, Bolesław Jóźwik and Stanisław Walaszczyk – to the edge of the pit and shot them in the back of the head, killing all six. The hole was covered up with earth and the detachment left. In March 1945, the families of the murdered victims dug up their bodies and took them to the cemetery in Przyłęk, where they were reinterred in coffins.

Having first detained the six men, the gendarmes in all probability did not intend to kill them on the spot, for they ordered that a horse and cart be organized, however after the shooting and wounding of one of their colleagues and the killing of Zuchowicz, the gendarmes told the six youths that they were all bandits, for a bandit had tried to rescue them, and therefore they must die like bandits. And thus they were executed.