FILIPOWICZ, WIKTORAK

13 October 1946

From 1939 to 1940, mainly Gestapo were stationed in the elementary school on Stojanowska Street. The area was fenced with wires, one wire next to another, so that it was impossible to put a finger through. In late autumn 1939, the Germans called all the householders and told them that the grounds were mined, that no-one, not even a dog, should come in, that dogs should be leashed. The Germans also said not to receive anyone overnight, and if someone did, that they should be informed.

Cars constantly drove up in front of the school. Today they killed so and so, tomorrow so and so, that is what people used to say. Usually they did the shooting in the evening. One could constantly hear: “bang, bang.” Once, they brought a man out of Myszkowska Street and executed him because he supposedly had an old rifle from military service. The mother of the executed man told me about it.

I did not see any executions myself because I was afraid and fled. When they started with the guns, I used to say: “The Germans are sharpening their teeth for the Poles.” The headmistress of the school lived in an annex inside the school grounds.

Half a year after the executions, in the spring, they took the executed from the ground. The wives took their husbands, the mothers their sons. If someone did not have family or came from far away, then the “Jewish last favor” [sic] came and took them.

Signed:
Filipowicz, Gorzykowska Street 24
Wiktorak, the same address