MARIANNA BELICA

On 19 November 1947, the Municipal Court in Iłża with Judge M. Pytlewski presiding interviewed the person specified below as a witness, without administering an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Marianna Belica
Age 43 years old
Parents’ names NN and Katarzyna Ziętek
Place of residence Podsuliszka, Zalesice commune
Occupation farmer
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties mother of the victim Tadeusz Belica

The German gendarmes arrived in our village and were quartered there for several days. They later moved to the neighboring Modrzejowice estate. They had black and light grey uniforms.

On 14 August 1943, they surrounded the village of Podsuliszka and herded everyone into one place in front of Bronisław Kopania’s buildings. They took all the men from Podsuliszka and Suliszka, and rushed them to the Modrzejowice estate. Among them were also several women. They did not take children. They locked everyone up in the basement for the night. In the morning of 15 August 1943, my daughter Marianna escaped from Modrzejowice. After a while I heard shots and screaming in the Pakosław Forest, around a kilometer away from Modrzejowice. Upon hearing the shots I ran to the Modrzejowice estate to ask about my husband and son who had been detained. In the Modrzejowice estate I encountered two Germans without the right palms of their hands, wearing black uniforms. They wanted to tear me apart by pulling my arms in the opposite directions. In that moment, a tall German who hadn’t yet put his uniform on exited the apartment, forbade the two Germans from tormenting me, and asked why I was there. When I said that I wanted to ask about my husband and children, he replied that my daughter had escaped, my son had been killed and my husband would end up in a pit as well.

The young detainees were assigned numbers, the elder ones were not. The youth who had been assigned numbers were shot to death in the forest on the morning of 15 August 1943, while the elders remained in the estate. Following the intervention of Woźniak, the forester from Antoniów (a forester’s lodge near Modrzejowice), the elders were released on 15 August 1943, at about 7.00 a.m.

16 young men were killed, including my son Tadeusz, while 9 others escaped. The Germans buried all of them in one pit. On the third day I buried my son in the cemetery in Alojzów. Out of these Germans, I would recognize the two without their right hands and the tall one, who had an elongated, pock-marked face. I do not know their surnames.

The report was read out.