HELENA JAKUBOWSKA

On 18 October 1947, in Końskie, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, Teodor Tomaszewski, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Helena Jakubowska
Age 27
Parents’ names Adam and Marianna, née Tomala
Place of residence Końskie, Pod Lasem Street 73
Occupation housewife and farmer
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none

On 6 April 1940, the Germans killed the following members of my family: my husband Marian Tarnowski (at present I am married to my second husband, Jakubowski), my brother Rudolf Tamala, and my father Adam Tamala. A few Germans came and told all of us to go out to the yard. They took the men with them and left us women at home. The men were taken to help push loaded wagons, which were [too] heavy for the horses [to pull]. Between ten and twenty minutes later I heard shots fired in the forest. My mother went in that direction first and found out that six people had been shot there, in the forest. Among them I recognized my father and brother. Regarding my husband, they killed him four kilometers farther away, near the village of Piekło, and it was there that I recognized him on Sunday, 7 April, in the morning. There were about 10–12 people lying there with him in the forest – unburied – with their clothes on. Their burial took place on Tuesday, 9 April 1940, in the cemetery in Końskie. I don’t know what the Germans killed my father, brother, and husband for. When [the Germans] were taking them away they stated no charges and said they would be back in half an hour.