SZCZEPAN KUSTRA

In Kazanów on this day, 9 April 1948, at 2.00 p.m., I, Zenon Wilk from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station, acting under Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, following instructions from the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom issued on 31 March 1948 (L. 532/48/2) under Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, observing the formal requirements set forward in Articles 235–240, 258 and 259 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with the participation of a reporter, a Militia functionary from Zwoleń, Władysław Adamczyk, whom I have informed of his obligation to attest to the conformity of the report with the actual course of the procedure by his own signature, have heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the right to refuse to testify for the reasons set forward in Article 104 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and of the criminal liability for making false declarations, this pursuant to the provisions of Article 140 of the Penal Code, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Szczepan Kustra
Parents’ names Franciszek and Katarzyna, née Sałgót
Age 51 years old
Place of birth Karolin, commune of Grabów nad Wisłą
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation farmer
Place of residence Karolin, commune of Grabów nad Wisłą
Relationship to the parties none

With regard to the matter at hand, I know the following: the events of which I am giving an account took place on 18 March 1942. Early in the morning, the village administrator, Jan Wawrzan, arrived at my place and told me to take an ax, a spade and a pickax. I was ordered to go with him to a place indicated by the German Gestapo.

When we arrived on the spot, we were ordered to dig a pit. In the course of digging the hole, we were kicked and beaten. The Germans didn’t allow us to look around. Once the hollow had been dug, Gestapo men accompanied by German colonists from Karolin led the prisoners, whom they had tied together in fives, to the pit and killed them all, every single group. This was followed by the execution of several more people whom the Germans brought from other places. We were then ordered to level the top of the pile of bodies and fill up the grave. The soil with which the pit was filled immediately became soaked with blood, quivering for some time with the death throes of those who hadn’t succumbed immediately after being shot.

When the massacre was over, the Germans gave us a speech. They threatened to put the whole village to the sword if any of us were proved to be active in the underground movement or if we failed to report the appearance of any partisans in our area. Then they ordered us to run away home. The killing was carried out by the Gestapo and German colonists led by Hejniak and Józef Gramm. The men who were executed were accused of being part of some clandestine organization. Their relatives are still alive, working on their farms in Karolin and all the other villages that suffered the disaster. I know for certain that during their interrogation, which was conducted at the school in Karolin, the convicts were severely beaten. Soaked in blood, unconscious, they were beyond recognition.

I wish to note that some people were murdered in front of their houses, right after the Germans led them outside. This is how, for example, Józef Gładysz and Stanisław Sałek were killed. The residents of Karolin were then ordered to take their bodies to the grave.

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