WŁADYSŁAW WOŚ

On 14 October 1948 in Radom, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, this in the person of Deputy Prosecutor T. Skulimowski, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Władysław Woś
Age 45 years old
Parents’ names Maciej and Elżbieta, née Tyburczy
Place of residence Radom, Główna Street 48
Occupation laborer
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

Throughout the German occupation I lived in the village of Leokadiów in the commune of Góra Puławska, district of Kozienice. On 14 January 1944, two German gendarmes came to my home. They ordered me to take a pickax and a spade and go with them. They led me to Jana Kawki Square and told me to dig a hole. I was assisted in this task by Hipolit Kopania, Ferdek Kopania (now deceased) and three German servants, whose surnames I do not know.

Carefully instructed by the gendarmes, we dug a hole 2 meters wide, 2 meters long and 2½ meters deep. In Jana Kawki Square – which I did not approach – there were 33 bodies of dead Polish men, aged between 20 and 50. I didn’t recognize any of them. Nor did I recognize any of the Germans who took part in the execution. I do know, however, that this shooting of 33 Poles was an act of revenge for the murder of two Volksdeutschers, carried out a few days earlier by partisans. None of the executed Poles was from Leokadiów. I don’t know where they had come from – maybe Radom or Zwoleń. Two bodies were in their underwear, while the rest were fully clothed. We arranged the corpses in the pit and covered them with earth. A few days later, some gendarmes drove up in a motor car and burned the bodies using a special device.

I would like to add that this execution took place at 6.00 p.m., for at that time we heard bursts of shots, followed soon after by single shots. The Germans didn’t allow anyone to see the execution, so there are no eyewitnesses.