In Brzózki on this day, 25 November 1948, at 12.00 p.m., I, militiaman Jan Nalewajek from the Citizens’ Militia Station in Popów, acting on the instruction of citizen Deputy Prosecutor, issued on the basis of Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 257 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, due to the unavailability of a judge in the township, in consequence whereof any delay could result in the disappearance of traces or evidence of a crime, which traces or evidence might cease to exist before the arrival of a judge, observing the formal requirements set forward in Articles 235–240, 258 and 259 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, have heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the significance of the oath, 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 | Jan Sikora |
| Parents’ names | Protazy and Katarzyna |
| Age | 62 years old |
| Date and place of birth | 7 October 1886, Wąsosz-Kolonia |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | farmer |
| Place of residence | Brzózki, Popów commune, Częstochowa district |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
With regard to the matter at hand I can provide the following information: I don’t remember the exact date, but it was sometime in August 1944 in the village of Brzózki, Popów commune: a German from the SS was killed. The Germans then took him to the school.
A few days later the Germans brought ready-made beams for a gallows, and the commune administrator chose me and a few other people from our settlement to build it.
When we had erected it, the Germans brought 20 prisoners whom I didn’t know, and ordered that ten of them have their shackles removed – these people were to hang their friends. As the ten prisoners were approaching the gallows and their rope nooses one by one, one of the Germans read out the sentence, in German and in Polish. After the sentence was read out, ten prisoners fastened the nooses around the necks of their friends and removed the stools from under their feet, so that a few minutes later their lives came to an end. Next the dead were cut down from the gallows, loaded onto a car and taken somewhere. The Germans herded people from all the surrounding villages to watch this spectacle.
I would like to add that although the Germans read out the surnames of the hanged people, I don’t remember any of them.
I don’t know anything else regarding the present case. At this I conclude my testimony and, having had it read out to me, I sign it.