On 12 January 1972 in Iłowo, Mława county, Ryszard Juszkiewicz, judge for the District Court in Mława, with the participation of court reporter Ewa Jakubowska, heard the person named below as a witness. The witness was warned of the criminal liability for giving false testimony, after which the witness stated with her own signature that she had been cautioned about this responsibility (Article 172 of the Criminal Code). The witness, [also] cautioned about her responsibility regarding the content of Art. 165 of the Criminal Code, then testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisława Krokowska |
| Maiden name | Burczyńska |
| Parents’ names | Wincenty and Józefa |
| Date and place of birth | 28 September 1919, in Trzcianka, Mława county |
| Place of residence | Iłowo, [...] |
| Occupation | none |
| Education | primary |
During the occupation I lived in Iłowo. I didn’t work in the camp, but as a cleaner at the gendarmerie. I knew about the existence of the camp because I used to walk home along Leśna Street. Often I saw children’s cots there lying exposed outside the brick barrack in which these children lived.
Some friends of mine worked in the camp and I knew what was happening there. Also, my husband, who was my fiancé at the time, told me about the conditions prevailing in the camp. As the carter, he brought food from Działdowo, from Nidzica, and in addition he carted away the bodies of children and adults who had been in the camp. The children’s cemetery was located on the left side of the railway tracks, running from Iłowo to Mława.
I think that the camp was set up when the war broke out between the Soviet Union and Germany. The camp for adults contained Russians, Lithuanians, Poles – mostly civilians. Where they came from, I don’t know. The children staying in the children’s camp were Poles, they were brought in from German camps or from hospitals.
By chance, I once witnessed three small children being brought to the Iłowo camp. I was on my way there at the time to visit my sister, who worked with my brother-in-law for a farmer near Olsztynek. I was returning by train along the Olsztyn–Działdowo–Iłowo route. On the train from Olsztyn to Działdowo, I observed three young women who were traveling with a German nun. These women had small children up to a few weeks old. I was intrigued by where they were going. I began to think to myself that they were going to the children’s camp in Iłowo. My assumptions were confirmed when I started to talk to them in Działdowo, when we were waiting together for the train to Iłowo. The nun wasn’t present during our conversation as she had gone off to do something. These mothers sat with their children by the stove in the waiting room and fed them. I asked them where they were going and where they came from. I received the answer that they all worked in and around Olsztyn and that one of them was married and the other two [were] single. They said that they had been informed that they were to take their children to Iłowo, where the children [would] be placed in the camp, while they would work there and look after them. I told them then that the children would be taken away from them, and they wouldn’t work in the camp. These mothers then began to cry loudly, just like at a funeral when you lose your loved ones. I was afraid, I began to fear arrest for what I had said, and ran off to the toilet, where I stayed until the arrival of the train. Then, unnoticed, I got on the train and arrived at Iłowo. At the station in Iłowo, I saw the women I mentioned above get off together along with the nun and head towards the camp along Leśna Street.
I followed them as I headed home. After some time, I left the house and went into town to the shops to buy something. As I walked, I saw all these women being pushed away from the camp by the camp guard. They cried and told them to give them back their children, or to let them stay there as promised. One of them was even hit by a guard. All then went to the railway station and rode off.
In this way, I found out where children in the children’s camp were coming from. Before that, I had wondered where they were being brought to the camp from. My sister told me that the children were taken away from many Polish women who worked near Olsztynek, where she worked, but she didn’t see where they were taking them.
I heard that the children were well looked after in the camp. One of the nuns who took care of the children in the camp told us that they would stay in the camp until the age of three and then be taken off to Germany. The sister and I were talking by the fence that separated Leśna Street from the camp. The whole camp was fenced off with barbed wire, only in this place was the fence made of mesh.
My husband and the people working there told me that at the beginning there were 72 children in the children’s camp, and then, at the end, not much more than 20. But they probably didn’t die, but were taken away, only I don’t know where. In principle, these children from the children’s camp didn’t die, but very many children died from the neighboring camp, those were children staying with their parents—the children of Poles, Russians and various nationalities. They were transported to the cemetery near the forest, as I mentioned above, and buried in two graves or maybe three or even four.
The camp residents were housed in wooden barracks. Harsh conditions prevailed there, mainly due to hunger. Two gates led to the camp—one was located near the children’s barrack, from Leśna Street and the other from Jagiellońska Street. In addition, a gate led up to the camp that was used by the camp administration staff. It was located opposite the main brick building standing on Leśna Street, where the camp administration was located. Currently, it houses a vocational school.
This concluded the hearing and the report was signed after reading.