On 31 May 1947 in Zwoleń, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes with its seat in Radom, this in the person of a member of the Commission, T. Skulimowski, acting pursuant to Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the provisions of Article 106 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Maria Nowakowska |
| Age | 41 years old |
| Parents’ names | Adam and Jadwiga, née Borowiecka |
| Place of residence | Zwoleń, Kochanowskiego Street 7 |
| Occupation | unemployed |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
At 4.00 a.m. on 15 January 1944 I was awoken by a banging on the door and window. After I opened the door, five German gendarmes entered the flat, and among them a local gendarme, Mozer, for whom my husband – a shoemaker – had made shoes. The gendarmes demanded that he turn in his brothers, but when my husband declared that he had no brothers [or no knowledge of their whereabouts], they ordered him to get dressed, take his identity documents and accompany them to the local gendarmerie station. The people arrested that night – 18 male residents of Zwoleń – were immediately taken to Leokadiów and executed there. Some 32 people were shot dead in Leokadiów on that day. To date, I don’t know why my husband was arrested and subsequently killed.
Five weeks later, I was summoned to the town hall, where a gendarme and a Polish policeman read out an announcement informing me that on 15 January 1944 a death sentence had been carried out in Leokadiów on my husband and the other persons arrested that night in Zwoleń. The bodies of the victims were buried near the place of the execution. Following the entry of the Soviet Army, we dug up the grave, however we found only some burned clothes and a cap. I would like to add that when the arrestees were being interrogated, I was standing right before the gendarmerie station and heard my brother-in- law, Jan Kowalski, crying and shouting: “Gentlemen, why are you beating me? Sweet Jesus, save me!”. At that very moment, a gendarme walked up and forced me to leave. His surname was Gross, and he drove me off with the words: “Get lost, woman, or I’ll shoot you”.
I am now the sole carer of two children, aged 15 and 12.