On 4 May 1988 in Białystok Waldemar Monkiewicz, prosecutor for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok, delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Białystok by the Prosecutor General of the Polish People’s Republic, proceeding in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of the Act of 6 April 1984 (Journal of Laws No. 21, item 98) and Article 129 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false statements, the witness confirmed with his own signature that he had been informed of this liability (Article 172 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The witness then testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Edward Edmund Andrzejczyk |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Antonina |
| Date and place of birth | 18 August 1918, Słupie, Szulborze-Koty commune |
| Place of residence | Mroczki, Zambrów commune |
| Occupation farmer | farmer |
| Education | 4 years of elementary school |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
During the Hitlerite occupation I was living with my father, stepmother Stanisława and my siblings in the village of Czyżew-Sutki, a settlement. My father was a farmer and owned a 12 morgen, or 8 hectare, farm.
In the autumn of 1942 Jews from Czyżew came to us. At that time, the Germans began the liquidation of Jewish ghettos and the deportation of Jews to death camps. I only knew three of those Jews – Węgorz, Szczupakiewicz and Muniek. They were all pre-war acquaintances of my father. Feelings of friendship must have motivated him to agree to shelter them and their families. Us children also agreed to shelter Jews, although it meant a lot of work for us and no benefits, since the Jews had no money whatsoever. They told me and my father that if they survived, their relatives in America would compensate us after the war.
We prepared a hideout for the Jews under the floorboards in our house. We worked on preparing this hideout at night; I remember hauling buckets of sand. We arranged the second hideout in a standalone cellar, under which there was also a smaller space. That’s where the three men I mentioned hid. Under the house floor we hid the women and children. At first glance those hideouts were undetectable and well concealed. What betrayed them was a hollow sound made as the gendarmes were hacking at the floorboards with axes.
I should mention that the Jews were sheltered by us throughout the winter, and in March the gendarmes caught wind of them. Against the advice and requests of my father, the Jews we sheltered would leave the hideouts at night and venture into the former ghetto in Czyżew. I have no idea what they were hoping to find there. In any case, I know that they were seen by the night watchman, who informed my father of this, and my father told me. I can’t rule out that they could have been seen by gendarmes as well.
On the morning of 20 March 1943 German gendarmes arrived on our property. As soon as I saw them, I made a panicked escape through the window. I soon found myself in the nearby forest and returned after it was all over. Upon returning that same day I saw the body of my father murdered by the gendarmes. The bodies of the Jews were not yet buried at that point, they were lying on a meadow near the house. As they were leaving, the gendarmes ordered the village council head Adam Popławski, now deceased, to select people for the task of burying the bodies of those three Jews they murdered.
I suppose I haven’t mentioned yet that the gendarmes murdered my father and three Jews – Węgorz, Szczupakiewicz and Muniek – on the spot. The rest they took with them and shot in Szulborze. Allegedly, before the search the gendarmes asked my father if he was sheltering Jews, but my father wouldn’t admit to it. He was shot through the head and hands, his eye was knocked out and outside the eye socket. We buried my father in the cemetery in Czyżew.
But before that, that same day in the early evening, three gendarmes returned on a horse carriage with one of the young Jews whom they had captured that morning at our house. They were searching for money allegedly owned by the Jews sheltering at our house. I don’t know if the Jews indeed had any money, but in any case, it was a fruitless search. The gendarmes handcuffed me, beat me on the head with rifle butts and threatened to shoot me. They stole my wrist watch and robbed the house of my father’s shoes, coat and sheepskin. Since then I lost vision in my right eye, the optic nerve must have been damaged. I also had a damaged scull.
Bleeding and barely alive from the beating, I was taken by the gendarmes to the jail in Czyżew. They kept me there for several hours, constantly threatening to shoot me if I didn’t reveal where the Jewish money was. But the Jews had no money. Perhaps this young Jew mentioned it in hopes that the gendarmes wouldn’t shoot him and he might get a chance to flee.
I would like to add that as the eldest sibling I was the most burdened with taking care of the Jews in hiding and I suffered the most health-wise due to being beaten by the Germans. My stepmother is no longer alive.
I would like to add the following to my testimony: in subsequent days the German commissar in Czyżew, Sadowski, robbed us of a horse, cows and other farm animals, meaning he took them under his supervision and gradually removed them from our possession.