29 August 1966
District Court in Mława
The Presiding official of the District Court, Ryszard Juszkiewicz, heard the case at an open hearing: ex officio confiscation.
| Name and surname | Franciszek Krokowski |
| Date and place of birth | 15 April 1915 in Stara Wisła |
| Parents’ first names | Henryk and Julianna |
| Place of residence | Iłowo, Lipowa Street 12 |
The witness, after having given his oath, submitted explanations as follows:
During the occupation I lived in the village of Mławka, in the vicinity of Mława. I was at home with my parents, and helping them on the farm. Apart from that I also had paid work with my horses, as a wagon driver. I found work, among others, in Iłowo, at the children’s camp, which was located on Leśna Street. I began working there towards the end of 1942. I was earning 14 marks a day. I transported coal and food products from the warehouse to the camp grounds.
Next to the children’s camp there was a camp for adults. The adults were housed there in eight barracks. There were both men and women there, sent from Germany for rehabilitation purposes. The children, who were in the children’s camp, were brought from Germany from Polish and Russian women who had children when they were in forced labor. The children were very small, up to two years old at the most. There were a few dozen of them, I cannot say exactly how many. They died very often. I don’t know what their cause of death was, since nobody was let into the rooms where they were. When children died, I was instructed to take them [their corpses] out. They were buried in coffins. They were buried in individual graves. There were no surnames on the crosses, only numbers. Towards the end of the occupation, approximately 200 children were buried by the Iłowo forest, near Staszica Street.
A similar number of adults were buried. They were buried by those Soviet slaves who were near that children’s camp, or by the camp’s staff, I only transported them out. The graves are not cared for. I would be able to find that place.
When the Soviet forces occupied Iłowo, people took in the children [to bring them up] who remained at the camp. They adopted many of them through the court; there were a lot of children living in Iłowo.
The camp’s German staff ran away; the camp’s economic manager was a German, whose surname was Dardat [Wardat]. I can’t remember his first name, but he used to go around wearing a black suit, and he was tall and well-built.
I don’t know whether there were children from the Zamość region there.
The camp’s staff was German.