STEFAN KOŁSUT

On 25 January 1946 in Radom, Investigating Judge Kazimierz Borys of the II District of the Regional Court in Radom with its seat in Radom interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Stefan Kołsut
Age 22 years old
Parents’ names Tomasz and Katarzyna
Place of residence Firlej, commune of Wielogóra
Occupation office worker
Religion Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

The first execution was held in Firlej on 4 April 1940. I didn’t witness it. I only heard gunfire between 12.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. Before this killing the Germans dug pits in the sands. Immediately after the Germans left, I went up to the execution site and saw fragments of skull bone, human hair and pieces of clothing. There were traces of five fresh mass graves in the sands. One of the hollows had not yet been covered up. Three days later, the Germans brought 10 men, led them towards this hole and shot them there. I didn’t see the execution itself. I only heard a salvo and noticed rifle smoke.

From that time on, executions would be held there nearly every week. Initially, people were shot en masse, while later there were both individual and mass executions.

In July 1944 the Germans forced me to work on the burying of bodies in the Firlej sands. The group to which I was assigned numbered 10 men. We were ordered to bury 19 people.

All of the murdered victims had been kneeling, with their faces bent down. They were tied up in threes. In total, there were some 38 corpses. We determined this number with the help of people who had been burying bodies on the same day at other locations. We placed the corpses in holes, more or less three to each.

Our work was supervised by gendarme Józef Schlecht from Józefów near Radom.

I was not present in Firlej when the Germans started incinerating their victims, so I cannot provide any information in this regard. Neither can I say anything about the final shootings, for at the time I was detained by the Germans.

The report was read out.