On 18 October 1945 in Sokołów Podlaski, judge Z. Łukaszkiewicz interviewed the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for giving false testimony, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Wacław Wołosz |
Age | 52 |
Names of parents | Jan |
Place of residence | Sokołów, railway station |
Occupation | Polish State Railways switchman |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Criminal record | none |
Ever since before the war, including the entire war period, I have been working at the railway station in Sokołów.
If memory serves me right, transports of Jews to Treblinka station began to pass through Sokołów station in August 1942. As far as I remember, such transports were very frequent during the period between the said date and New Year’s Day 1943. I would even say that they passed every day, sometimes it was a single transport, at other times two, three or even four. I do not think it will be an exaggeration if I say that during that period, there were on average two transports a day. Each comprised 60 to 70 wagons, each of those wagons accommodating from 100 to 150 people, which I learned from chalk writings on the wagons.
The transports were not indicated on the timetable and Sokołów station was only notified of an approaching transport by receiving the train number. Trains were escorted by Germans and Ukrainians, who sometimes allowed water to be handed out to those on the transport, but they typically did not let anybody near the train and fired shots at any attempt to get out of the wagons (through windows, because doors were locked), so after the train had passed, there were a lot of corpses lying around at the station and along the tracks.
The German Gendarmerie from Sokołów would then arrive at the station to finish off any wounded.
In general, between Siedlce and Treblinka, “the entire railway is a grave.” Let me add that a couple of times, I managed to talk to people on the initial transports. They were certain that they were going to a labor camp. Later, the people already knew they were going to a death camp.
The report was read out, after which it was signed by the witness.