WŁADYSŁAW WDOWSKI

On 15 August 1947 in Jedlnia-Letnisko, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, in the person of a member of the Commission, lawyer Zygmunt Glogier, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Władysław Wdowski
Date and place of birth 20 June 1911, Kolonia, Jedlnia commune, Kozienice district
Parents’ names Jan and Katarzyna, née Maciejczyk
Place of residence Stróża forest district, post office in Ożarów, near Opatów
Occupation forester
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In the years 1939–1940, I worked in the Jedlnia forest district. Since I lived not far from the execution site – some 300–400 meters – I can provide some details that I remember.

There are approximately nine graves in the Siczki forest circle – all of these are mass graves, and in two there are two layers of executed people. According to my estimates, about 1,000 people were executed – men, women and children of all ages, mostly members of the intelligentsia. The trucks came from the direction of Radom, and the executions were carried out mostly in the afternoon. Immediately after an execution, a new ditch was dug out – it had to be big enough for a new transport.

When the trucks brought the condemned people to the site, the entire area was heavily guarded by the SS and the gendarmerie. Even to have a peek at the execution was out of the question; besides, nobody knew when they would come and from what direction. I know that people were brought there for an execution about 11 times. An average transport comprised from 1 to 4 covered trucks, each weighing about 3–5 tons.

The executions were carried out in such a way that the victims were pushed into the ditches, and then grenades were thrown in after them. Finally the victims were finished off with single shots or a new batch of grenades. The whole neighborhood could hear it. Then the graves were filled in and concealed – all that remained visible were traces of blood and bodies on trees and grenade fragments. These traces can be seen to the present day. On the second day, after one execution, I myself found a fragment of human body with hair on a pine. As far as I can tell, in the period of our [illegible] the executions were no longer being carried out, as the Germans were going to some other place.

I think that in 1944 or 1945, the Germans came to Siczki Forest once again and posted an even heavier guard; when I went to the graves later on, I noticed that they had been disturbed. I don’t know what the Germans did in the forest.

It seems that presently there are no bodies in these graves. Only one grave remained undisturbed – the one with a cross, which is currently fenced. The executions were carried out in the years 1939–1940.

I know nothing else. The report was read out.