On 30 January 1947, in Końskie, Judge Herniczka [?], member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, Końskie branch, heard the person named below as a witness. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Michał Rajchstain |
| Age | 50 |
| Parents’ names | Morolhd [?] and Dobra |
| Place of residence | Łódź, 1 Maja Avenue 18, flat 8 |
| Occupation | help desk clerk at the liquidation office in Końskie |
| Religious affiliation | Jewish |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I lived in Końskie since birth and made a living running a guesthouse in Czarniecka Góra. During the occupation in Końskie, the Jewish population was used for forced labor along the roads and digging ditches.
At the end of 1941, a ghetto was established in Końskie, in which all the Jews from Końskie and Jews who had come to Końskie from Łódź, Warsaw, Radom and Kielce were confined. There could have been about 10,000 Jews in the ghetto. It had a soup kitchen, which was run by the Jewish Community and which gave out soup once a day; each person was given 6 kg of bread a month. As a result of the hunger and cramped living conditions in the ghetto, typhus killed 50 people a week.
The Końskie ghetto was created by order of the local German authorities, the local county chief Albrecht and Landwirt Fitting, who was killed by partisans, I suppose.
In November 1942, the ghetto was liquidated, while all the Jews from the ghettos in Końskie, Radoszyce and Gowarczowa were transported to the camp in Treblinka, about 7,000 people, [and] they did not return from there. The the deportation of Jews from Końskie was handled by a German and Ukrainian formation which arrived from Radom, the local military police and Gestapo, as well as the Polish police. I don’t know on whose instructions the Końskie ghetto was liquidated. About 600 Jews could have been killed during the liquidation of the ghetto, mostly those who did not want to go, mainly by the German military policemen from Końskie – I don’t remember who they were, I suppose everyone took part in it. Then about 1,000 Jews who were found were killed by the German military policemen from Końskie and the Polish police officers, about 400. I don’t remember their names.
All the Jewish property in Końskie was looted. Of the remaining Jews, 150 who were able to work were deported to the camp in Skarżysko-Kamienna, I among them. The rest were taken to Szydłowiec, where some were killed by the Germans and the rest were deported to the camp in Treblinka. About one hundred Jews remained in Końskie – those who worked on Landwirt Fitting’s farm under [illegible]. In January 1943, they were deported to Radomsko, where some were killed and the remainder were deported [further].
I was in the labor camp in Skarżysko-Kamienna from December 1942 to June 1944. I worked by filling grenades with TNT. Fifteen thousand Jews worked in Skarżysko, about one hundred of whom, those unable to work, were shot during a selection every week. A few a day died from exhaustion or were killed for disobedience. About ten people were hanged every week for sabotage, that is if someone did not want to go to work. Around a thousand people could have died due to frequent explosions. Jews from Kraków, Kielce, Ostrowiec and Sandomierz were brought to Skarżysko, so about 100,000 Jews could have been killed in Skarżysko. In June 1944, 500 people were killed when the camp in Skarżysko-Kamienna was liquidated. The rest, numbering some 6,000–8,000, were deported to the camps in Buchenwald and Częstochowa.
In 1941, I was taken to the Gestapo in Końskie [on charges] that Jews were gathering at my house for prayer. I was beaten with a rubber baton on my back and face by Gestapo officers whose names I don’t remember.
In 1942, my sister Sara Miodowicz was killed in Końskie by a German military policeman, whose name I don’t remember, for leaving the ghetto. I remember that the German military policeman Rajch killed Zelman Lipski in May or June 1942 in Końskie, and during the deportation he killed Josh Lenge, Szlama Obanański and his wife. My wife Dora, son Juda and daughter Szajndla were killed in January or February 1943 by the Germans during the deportation from Szydłowiec.
In Skarżysko-Kamienna, the German masters and Poles beat Jews with rubber and sticks, the masters from halls 58 and 53 beat me, Germans and Poles; I don’t remember their names. Witnesses of this were Icek Figlarczyk and Szowna Figlarczyk, residing in Łódź [at] Narutowicza Street 23.