FRANCISZEK KASPRZYK

In Brzózki on this day, 25 November 1948, at 7.00 p.m., I, militiaman Jan Nalewajek from the Citizens’ Militia Station in Popówka, acting on the instructions 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 Franciszek Kasprzyk
Parents’ names Jakub and Katarzyna
Age 52 years old
Date and place of birth 17 March 1895, Borowa, Miedźno commune
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: on 31 December 1943, some Germans – commissar Majbach among them – came to the village of Brzózki. Then they went to the Brzózki forest. A few hours later the Germans returned from the forest. Then they chose one cart and four people, that is, Ignacy Tołpiew, Andrzej Wojtyra and Jan Sikora, and we went to the forest once again. Then they took me and told me to take two [illegible]. We reached a spot where two people, that is, two Jews, were digging a pit, and three Jews and one Jewess were lying on the ground, tied with cords. Shortly afterwards they ordered me to go away from that place.

About an hour later I heard machine gun fire. It was then that the Germans killed the above mentioned Jews; they buried the Jews themselves, and summoned us later on to finish that task, that is, to bury them properly. Later on the same day, we received another order from Majbach, which was to uncover these Jews and take them to the cemetery in the village of Wąsosz, situated in the same commune; the Jews were buried in that cemetery. I would like to emphasize that I didn’t know any of the executed people. I would like to add that one Pole, Pawliński, resident of Łęga, Miedźno commune, Częstochowa district, had come along with the Germans.

At this I conclude my testimony and, having had it read out to me, I sign it.