On 27 April 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 | Henryk Jendrzejczuk |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Stanisława, née Krystosiak |
| Date and place of birth | 3 January 1923, Białe Szczepanowice |
| Place of residence | Czyżew-Sutki, Czyżew commune |
| Occupation | pensioner |
| Education | 4 years of elementary school |
| Criminal record for perjury | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
During the entire Hitlerite occupation I lived in the settlement outside the village of Czyżew- Sutki. My parents were farmers, owners of a 10-hectare farm. I worked with them on the farm.
One of my brothers, Tadeusz, died during the occupation in 1941 after receiving a wrong smallpox vaccine; many children died at the time. This brother was just eighteen months old. My brother Edward lived with us. He was about 25 years old, now he lives in Mroczki, Andrzejewo commune; he’s a farmer. We had three sisters, one of whom, Irena, passed away. After the war she married Borkowski. At the time of her death she lived in the village of Szulborze-Koty. My two sisters are still alive. One of them, Eugenia Pakieła, lives in Czyżew-Sutki. During the occupation she was about 19 years old. The other, Jadwiga Stachurska, now lives in the township of Czyżew-Stacja. During the occupation she was 17 years old. During the Hitlerite occupation our last name was Andrzejczyk; that’s how it was spelled in our ID documents. After the war my ID was issued to “Jendrzejczuk” and so it remains to this day. I don’t know what version of the last name figured in ID documents of my brothers, mother, and my sisters before their respective marriages.
I recall, although not too clearly, that in the summer of 1942 a son of an oil maker from Czyżew, about 16 years old, arrived at our house. My father announced to us all that this Jew will shelter at our home. Since at that time there still were remnants of the ghetto in Czyżew, this Jewish boy wasn’t even trying too hard to hide. He helped us graze cattle and our whole family took care of him.
In the autumn of 1942, German gendarmes deported all Jews from Czyżew, liquidating the ghetto. That is when many other Jews came to us in two groups, one [made up of] fourteen people, and the other of three men. The details have faded from my memory, but [among them] were young women and several children. I remember the last names of the men Szczupakiewicz and Węgorz, and the first name Moniek [Muniek].
We prepared hideouts for those Jews under the floor in the house. One would enter this spacious underground chamber through an opening in the room. There was a wide board concealing the entrance, covered with a mat. The second group of Jews stayed in the cellar near our house. During the day we made sure the Jews didn’t leave the hideouts. My parents, as well as my brothers and sisters; correction: my brother and myself were always on the lookout for anybody approaching our buildings, so that the hiding of the Jews remained a secret. The Jews would leave their hideouts in the evenings for walks and necessary duties. Each member of the household would take turns delivering food for the Jews. They ate the same food as we did, washed their undergarments themselves and bathed at nighttime in our house.
I believe it was at dawn on 20 March 1943 when four gendarmes from the station in Czyżew arrived on a horse carriage. They were: Karwat, Olscha, Ciepierzyński and Krakowiak. Two of them, Karwat and Olscha, entered the house. I was still in bed, but just as my other family members I immediately got up and got dressed. My father was already dressed and in the bedroom.
One of the gendarmes, Olscha, spoke good Polish. He asked my father where the Jews were hidden. My father did not admit to sheltering anyone and accompanied the gendarmes to the barn. My brother and I went to the pigpen; I began to feed the cows. The gendarmes made a round of the buildings and finally took interest in the cellar, underneath the floor of which were hiding the Jews. One of the gendarmes tapped his foot on the floor and once he heard a hollow sound, he began hacking with his axe through the [floor]. He noticed the Jews and ordered them to come out.
The gendarmes first murdered my father. They beat him with rifle butts until he fell to the ground. Since I was in the barn a couple meters away I saw my father fall. I saw Ciepierzyński shoot him from an automatic rifle. I don’t know who was in command and who ordered [Ciepierzyński] to shoot my father. In May 1943 Ciepierzyński was shot in Czyżew. My father was shot next to the Jews’ hideout, close to the cellar. The Jews Węgorz, Szczupakiewicz and Muniek (not Moniek [I misspoke before]) were also murdered next to the cellar.
Next, the gendarmes got busy hacking the floors in the room, as the sound which followed tapping at the floorboards also arose their suspicions. After the hideout was exposed they ordered the Jews to come out. One of the gendarmes went to fetch the village head and put him in charge of delivering horse wagons which were then parked on our property. Those were wagons belonging to Franciszek Perkowski, who has since passed away, Julian Wilczyński and Stanisław Pawlak. The gendarmes rope-bound the Jews in groups of several by the wrists. After shooting my father they left us alone. Myself and my brother hid until the Germans left with the Jews. The wagon drivers said that the gendarmes ordered them to ride to Szulborze and shot the Jews there.