PELAGIA SZAREK

Kielce, 2 March 1948, 2.00 p. m. Stefan Młodawski from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station in Kielce, with the participation of court reporter Jan Zielono, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Pelagia Szarek
Parents’ names Ignacy and Zofia
Age 38 years old
Place of birth Węgleszyn, Jędrzejów district
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation manual laborer
Place of residence Kielce, 1 Maja Street 58, flat 4

During the occupation, I lived in Kielce. My husband worked in the Huta Ludwików foundry as a caretaker. Once, as he was he returning home from Włoszczowa, some Gestapo secret agents, including a certain Pawlik (his name is unknown), came to our flat and took my husband. They asked me (Pawlik did) how many children we had, and I replied him that we had two. Shortly afterwards they left the flat with my husband. I got dressed and followed them to the Polish Police station, where I inquired whether my arrested husband was there, but they answered me that he wasn’t. Leaving the station, in the street, I noticed that my husband and some other civilian man both had their hands cuffed. My husband told me, “They are accusing me of taking part in the robbery at Arendarski’s.” I wasn’t permitted to see my husband.

A few days later, I went to Arendarski and asked her [sic] to drop the case until it was explained and tried to convince her that it would eventually be clear as to who had committed the robbery. Arendarska replied that she wouldn’t drop it. I didn’t bother her any more.

Some time later, Arendarski accused me of threatening to kill him, but I didn’t even know him. A few days later, I was summoned to the Gestapo and I went. Prejs, a secret agent, asked me what I had said about Stanisław Arendarski. I answered that if my husband wasn’t alive, I would kill myself too. Then, this agent Prejs, struck me repeatedly and said, “You think that it is as it was during Polish times now, but we don’t care if there is one more or one less,” and added, “You can’t say such things, you are here to answer the questions”. He said “Your husband is a bandit,” to which I replied that it wasn’t true and then he resumed beating me, and beat me until blood came out through my nose and mouth. Then they told me to sign some document, so I took the pen and signed something, I don’t know what, and then he beat me again. Shortly afterwards he left and I went out to the corridor, to my children, where I met a caretaker. He asked me what was the matter with me, and I burst into tears and went home.

I would like to add that I don’t know the surnames of the people who carried out the death sentences, but all of them were Gestapo men. The man who was the cause of my husband’s death is Stanisław Arendarski, resident in Kielce at Dębowa Street 3.

At this point the report was concluded, read out and signed.