STANISŁAW CHRZANOWSKI

[Witness:]


Name and surname Stanisław Chrzanowski
Age 23
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Profession farmer
Education three levels of primary school
Relationship to the parties none

I did not hear such names as Böttcher [?], and I do not know whether he was a General. I stayed in the Bliżyn camp from 7 September 1943 to 1 April 1944. I don’t know for what reasons, but during the interrogation they beat me and asked me about weapons. The Blue Police from Staszów took me to the camp. I was sent there without any court proceedings. After only ten days, they sent the verdict from Radom, which said that I was sentenced to six months in the camp. Later, they added another month.

I do not remember what the official name of the camp was. Initially, the Unterscharführer was in charge; later, the Oberscharführer. First, the Ukrainians were the guards in the camp, then the SS officers. The highest number of prisoners in the camp, [as far as] I can remember, were: Poles – 280 people, and Jews – apparently 4,500. There was also one Ukrainian who had escaped from German captivity [in the camp].

In the camp, prisoners served sentences for failure to deliver quotas, lacking passes, and [were also held] as hostages for partisan actions. They were put to work digging out stones in the field, constructing basements, and maintaining order in the square. Outside the camp, the prisoners were taken to load stones.

In the morning, we received black coffee with no sugar and 20 grams of bread for the whole day. At noon, [we were given] a liter of soup made of turnips, beets, and water. In the evening, we had a pint of water with wholemeal flour stirred in.

They did not use any torture on the detainees. The guards beat the prisoners for minor reasons (for example, not taking off their hat). The commandant ordered punishment in the form of beatings and locking [prisoners] in the bunkers. The beatings were performed by Germans.

Prisoners had numbers on their chest and trousers. They wore prison clothes without armbands. The Jews were marked in the same way as the Poles. They could not mingle with the Poles.

In the camp there was a hospital, but I was never there. [Among the prisoners,] dysentery and typhus prevailed. I know it was typhus because when they drove me to the hospital in Kielce, I learned I had typhus. Twenty people died during my stay in the camp. Once, I saw a man they brought in from nearby get shot dead, and another time a prisoner was executed at the barbed wire fence. There was a public execution of two Jews by firing squad. Those who were murdered were buried in the forest. The commandant had ordered the Jews to be executed. There was neither a crematorium nor a gas chamber. I do not know when the camp was opened or dissolved. Food parcels arrived, but we only received bread from them. The barracks were warmed up by iron stoves. We slept in bunk beds. We had no blankets. On Sunday afternoons, we would get time off from work.

The report was read out.