On 30 January 1946 in Radom, the investigating judge from the 2nd Region of the District Court in Radom, Judge Kazimierz Borys, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Stefan Luty |
Age | 48 years old |
Parents’ names | Antoni and Julia |
Place of residence | Firlej, Wielogóra commune |
Occupation | headmaster |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Criminal record | none |
Relationship to the parties | none |
During the German occupation I lived in Firlej. Already in the first months of 1940, I saw trucks headed for the sands and heard shots issuing from that direction. I thought, however, that military exercises were taking place there. As late as on 4 April 1940, I realized that the Germans were executing Poles at the Firlej sands. On that day, at about 10.00 a.m., the Germans set up posts in front of our houses and forbade us to leave. At the same time, trucks began to drive between Radom and Firlej, and in Firlej they turned in the direction of the sands and stopped there. As I watched what was going on at the sands from the windows of my flat, I noticed that the Germans were unloading people from these trucks and marching them further in, beyond a hill, and then machine gun salvoes would ring out. Next another group of people would be led to the sands. The execution on that day lasted until 5.00 p.m. Some 200 people were shot dead. It was on that day that I realized what had been happening before 4 April 1940. Based on what I saw and heard on that day, I concluded that the sound of shooting that I had previously heard from the direction of the sands had not been occasioned by the alleged military exercises, but that executions were held at the Firlej sands from the beginning of 1940.
These executions were conducted up until the last days of the occupation, though with varying intensity. On average, the condemned were executed in Firlej almost every week, and in some weeks there were even two or four executions.
In October 1943, the Germans expelled the residents of Firlej and Wincentów who lived in the vicinity of the sands, shielded the site with straw mats and proceeded to burn the corpses of the murdered victims. Smoke hanging over the sands could be seen from afar, and we could also smell the stench of decomposing bodies. The burning of the corpses lasted until the spring of 1944. During that period, the executions were still being carried out, as we could hear shooting from the direction of the sands.
The executions continued even after the burning of the corpses was finished. They were most numerous in the summer of 1944. Towards the end of that year, there were executions usually of a few people at a time.
The last execution took place a few days before the Germans fled the area.
According to my estimates, which I am basing on my own observations, during the occupation the Germans executed about 12,000 people in Firlej.
The report was read out.