Kielce, 7 February 1948, 10.00 a.m. Marian Poniewierka from the Criminal Investigation Section of the Citizens’ Militia Station in Kielce, on the instruction of the Prosecutor from the District Court in Kielce, with the participation of court reporter Jan Zielono, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 140 of the Penal Code, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Katarzyna Wilk |
| Parents’ names | Teofil and Tekla |
| Age | 63 years old |
| Place of birth | Śladków Mały, Piła |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | domestic |
| Place of residence | Kielce, Wojska Polskiego Street 160a |
In the fall of 1941, a camp for Soviet prisoners of war was established in Fijałkowski barracks, and the prisoners stayed there until the liberation by the Soviet Army.
I don’t know exactly how many people passed through the camp, as there were thousands of them, more or less 15,000 people. Many prisoners had fled upon the liquidation of the camp, and before the Soviet Army entered, so there were no executions.
The death rate in the camp was very high, as a great number of prisoners died at the beginning of its operation; five or six carts loaded with the dead would leave the camp daily at the time. Towards the end, the prisoners were slightly better off and the death rate decreased quite a bit. All the deaths were caused by starvation. There were also a few cases of shooting prisoners, but this number was very low. The bodies of the dead and the executed were buried, naked, in mass graves in the woods in Bukówka, and the pits were filled with lime.
As for food, the prisoners usually received swede and dead horsemeat, but very little bread, about 10–15 decagrams.
There was no infirmary in the camp and no doctor either. If someone fell ill, he would be given a lethal injection and they would die. When the prisoners were in the camp, there were epidemics of typhoid fever and dysentery, and these diseases took the greatest toll. There was no crematorium in the camp, as the Germans also lived there.
As for the surnames and addresses of the prisoners, I don’t know them. I don’t know the surname of the camp commandant, although I knew him a bit. Allegedly he was a Bavarian; he was rather tall, slim, and wore glasses. He was addressed as Feldwebel [Staff Sergeant]. He was a very bad man. He was in the camp until 1944, and then from 1944 until the end there was another commandant, an old one, also a Feldwebel, but I don’t know his surname or where he came from.
At this point I conclude my testimony and, having read it, I sign it.