Wiesław Chmielewski
Class 5
Elementary school No. 5 in Starachowice
Iłża district
14 November 1946
Memories of German crimes
It happened on 12 September 1942 in the market square of Wierzbnik, where gallows were erected for the Polish people. Before the mass – it was a Sunday – the market square was surrounded by German gendarmes, the Polish police and undercover agents. Other gendarmes brought sixteen people, including two women and a seventeen-year-old girl. The victims walked in twos and had their hands tied with a cord. They were flanked by the gendarmes’ dogs to prevent escape attempts.
The gendarmes marched them to the market square, where they ordered them to lie down and read out their names one by one. Each person had a rope fastened around their neck and a small stool placed under their feet. Then the Germans kicked the stool and the victim was hanged – they killed 16 people that way.
This great German barbarism got etched in every true Pole’s mind and hurt Polish hearts. The day of 12 September 1942 was flooded with Polish tears and this great German barbarism is forever seared into Polish hearts.