22 February 1949
Municipal Court in Staszów.
The case falls within the competence of the Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Radom (Deputy Assistant Public Prosecutor), regarding the interview of witnesses.
Having been advised about the criminal liability for making false declarations, witnesses were duly sworn and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Wincenty Terech |
| Age | 23 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Education | two levels of primary school |
| Occupation | farmer |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was in the penal camp for seven months – from 8 February 1943 until April 1944. I was imprisoned there for nothing. My brother Wacław Terech was shot dead by the Germans, and I was taken to the camp. The Blue Police took me there. They detained me along with others, first in the gendarmerie station, and then without any court proceedings we were taken to the camp.
I do not remember the official name of the camp. The commandant of the camp was a German in a military uniform. I do not know in which rank. I can only remember that he had some stars on the epaulettes. [He was] tall with grey hair, he had a long face and a moustache trimmed in the English way. He never spoke Polish to the prisoners. The prisoners called him “Kolibar” and “Nosmal” [?] since he had a long nose.
The camp guards were Germans. For the first three months [the camp guards] had been Ukrainians in black uniforms, and then Germans, namely from the Land Forces. There were 400 Poles in this camp, and together with the Jews, there were up to 4,000 people. In the camp there were Poles and Jews, and one Soviet, who escaped from captivity. People were [there] for various reasons: the negligent execution of works, the speculation trade, the lack of a pass from the factory, [and] for partisan activity. I do not remember [other reasons].
Prisoners were employed crushing stone in quarries and loading it into freight cars, which were located outside of the camp. Depending on the individual, the prisoners were treated differently. Some guards treated prisoners humanely, others beat them for their sluggishness in the work. There were also those who beat the prisoners for pleasure. The commandant of the camp even set a dog on the prisoners. Among the “Ukrainians”, there were different people. Some were treated better, some worse. They did not perform torture in the camp. I once saw how a Ukrainian shot a Polish prisoner dead for taking a package given to him through the barbed wire. The prisoners were frequently beaten with leather whips and rubber batons, for nothing. It was the camp commandant who decided the punishments for prisoners; for example, he withheld food, he ordered people to work at night, and ordered punishment by whipping. This was done by the Germans – not by the prisoners – in the square during the evening roll-call.
The Jews lived in separate barracks, but in the same square as the Poles, with whom they had contact. Jews and Poles were treated equally in the camp.
Prisoners were identified by armbands and numbers at the knees. The Poles had red armbands, and the Jews white. The armbands were without any writing. There was a hospital on the camp premises. Among the prisoners there was an epidemic of typhus and dysentery. Ten people died during my stay in the camp. They did not perform any executions in the camp. However, once I saw them shoot dead a woman with a child. It was done by the Germans – I don’t know for what reasons. One German took a shot at her. She was holding a child in her arms. They fired only once with a rifle. I heard that this woman was Polish – [she was one of] the civilians living outside the camp. These civilians were craftsmen who came to the camp to perform certain works.
Dead prisoners were buried in the woods. There was neither a crematorium nor gas chambers. The camp was founded when the Germans went to fight in Russia, and was dissolved during the retreat of the Germans.
The camp authorities lived in the camp. Sometimes they organized parties. The “Ukrainians” came to work drunk. There were no Polish women in the camp, only Jewish women. I heard that both Germans and Ukrainians forced some Jewish women into prostitution.
Prisoners suffered from hunger. They ate three times a day. In the morning they [received] bitter black coffee and approximately 16 grams of black bread, which was supposed to last for 24 hours. For lunch, they served a liter of very thin soup cooked from cabbage and flour. In the evening, a pint of water stirred with flour. Once a week or [every] two weeks, they served horse meat and sausage.
There was no chapel in the camp. They did not allow any priest in for the prisoners to go for confession.
The report was read out.