LUDWIKA GRABOSZ

On 12 December 1945, in Radom, Kazimierz Borys, Investigating Judge from the Second District of the District Court in Radom, based in Radom, interviewed 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 Ludwika Grabosz
Age 66 years old
Names of parents Franciszek and Waleria
Place of residence Radom, Przyborowskiego Street 13
Occupation widow of a railway worker
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

On 12 October 1942, on the gallows in Różki near Radom, the Germans executed the following members of my family:

1) My son, Stanisław Grabosz, 46 years of age, a painting worker,

2) His wife, Julia Grabosz, née Boruszuk, 36 years of age,

3) Their son and my grandson, Mieczysław Grabosz, 17 years of age,

4) My daughter Bronisława Mróz, née Grabosz, 42 years of age, a railway worker,

5) My son-in-law, Feliks Mas, 32 years of age (born on 7 May 1913), a clerk at the Arms Factory,

6) My second daughter-in-law Zofia Grabosz, née Strzelecka, 32 years of age, my son

Józef’s wife.

In addition, in the courtyard of the house at Ogrodowa Street 12, in which I was living with my son, the Germans shot fifteen-year old Stanisław Garbosz, Stanisław’s son and my grandson. He was killed in mid-September 1942, some three weeks before the execution.

At the end of November or in mid-December 1942, on Radwańska Street in Radom, the Germans shot my son Józef Grabosz, Zofia Grabosz’s husband (she was hanged in Rożki, she is listed under no. 6). Józef Grabosz died as a result of the wounds he had received.

The circumstances preceding the execution of the people mentioned above were as follows: in the latter half of September 1942, returning from my neighbors’ to my flat in the house at Ogrodowa Street 12 in Radom, I noticed a number of people lying on the ground in the courtyard of the house. Before I realized what was going on – it was late and already dark – a Gestapo man screamed at me and then, when I was down on the ground, as all the other people there were, kicked me in the head a couple of times until I lost consciousness. Lying down, I heard a shot in the courtyard. The shot was fired at my grandson, Stanisław Grabosz, Stanisław’s son, whom, as my twelve-year-old granddaughter later told me, a Gestapo man hit so hard with a crystal ashtray that he was covered in blood. Then he was led out into the courtyard and shot. He was beaten and killed because, when asked by Gestapo men where his parents were, he said that he didn’t know. When I was brought from the courtyard into my flat, neither my son, with whom I was living, nor his wife and my daughter-in-law Julia, were there. There were only their children, and my grandchildren: Zofia Grabosz, 12 years of age, who told me about how her brother Stanisław had been beaten and whom I heard shot in the courtyard, and Krystyna Grabosz, who was eleven months old.

My daughter-in-law Julia Grabosz arrived at our flat shortly after I got back to it. She had been at her neighbors’ place on the ground floor. It didn’t take long before my second daughter-in-law Zofia Grabosz turned up, accompanied by Janina Szlajermacher, née Dąbrówka. Both were brought by Gestapo men. On the same day my both daughters-in- law and Janina Szlajermacher were taken by the Germans. I never saw them again. Gestapo guards remained at the flat.

On the following day, my daughter Bronisława Mróz, née Grabosz, returned, having spent the night away from home for fear of being arrested. Immediately after her arrival, she was detained and taken away.

Shortly after Bronisława’s arrest, my son-in-law, Feliks Mas, who was living at Przyborowskiego Street 13, came to our place. The Germans handcuffed him, but he wasn’t at once led out of the flat. Only in the afternoon, when my son Stanisław Grabosz and his son and my grandson, Mieczysław Grabosz, returned from a trip, did the Germans take all of them away, with Stanisław and his son having been handcuffed first too. I never saw them again.

That the people mentioned above had been executed on the gallows in Rożki I learned from my acquaintances. I wasn’t at the execution site and I don’t know where the bodies were buried. Nor do I know the charges on which they were arrested.

I wasn’t given any notification of the death of the people mentioned above. However, the Civil Status Office in Radom received a notification to this effect from the German authorities.

I have seen a photograph of the people hanged in Rożki and I recognized some of my family members. But I was sick after watching it and I don’t want to be shown these photographs again.

The report was read out.