1. POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Lund, 13 June 1946

Testimony received by Institute Assistant Helena Miklaszewska transcribed

Record of Witness Testimony 353

Here stands Mr Antoni Holik born on 28 August 1916 in Sucha , occupation regular armed forces officer religion Roman Catholic , parents’ forenames Antoni, Józefa last place of residence in Poland Tarnów current place of residence Gothenburg

who – having been cautioned as to the importance of truthful testimony as well as to the responsibility for, and consequences of, false testimony – hereby declares as follows: I was interned at the concentration camp in in Sanok from 17 January 1940 to 24 June 1940 as a political – bearing the number – and wearing a – -coloured triangle with the letter – I was later interned in – from – to – Antoni Holik –

Asked whether, with regard to my and my labour at the concentration camp, I possess any particular knowledge about how the camp was organized, how were treated, their living and working conditions, medical and pastoral care, the hygienic conditions in the camp, or any particular events concerning any aspect of camp life, I state as follows: The testimony is composed of ten pages of handwriting and describes the following: 1. Attempting to make way to Hungary 2. Being caught at the border 3. in Sanok 4. Prison warden Fritz 5. The prison 6. Gestapo visits 7. Attempts to escape the prison and their aftermath 8. Release from prison 9. Interrogation at the Gestapo station and abuse of prisoners 10. The role of Ukrainians in the Subcarpathian region 11. The Sondergericht [lit. ‘special court’, Ger.] sentencing 110 prisoners to death

BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1945

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12. The changing mood among the prisoners in Sanok 13. Religious life in prison 14. Mass shooting executions of Poles in July 1940 in the Subcarpathian region 15. Mass execution of Jews 16. Execution of a group of 200 young Jews, male and female, in Dobrzechów 17. Mass executions of Poles in 1943 and 1944 in Bierówka, Jasło, and Sanok 18. Martyrdom of an armed forces reserve second lieutenant, pseudonym ‘Strup’, and of members of the AK [Armia Krajowa, (the Home Army), the primary Polish resistance group] sabotage units – Michalski and a highlander by the name of Kobylaniec

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Once combat operations had ended, I made two attempts to find my way to Hungary and both times I was captured. After escaping from prison on the first occasion, I made contact with my superiors from ZWZ (Związek Walki z Zaborcami [sic, lit. ‘Union of Struggle against the Occupiers’; correctly Związek Walki Zbrojnej, ‘Union of Armed Struggle’]), received orders, and made my way once more for Hungary. It was wintertime – sub-zero temperatures, heavy snow, difficult border-crossing conditions – but the route was sound and the guides trustworthy. I was travelling with a priest named Licznewski from Wąbrzeźno and the son of one Major Bojarski [note written above text] and Second Lieutenant Zygmunt Kmita [/note]. At the Hungarian border, Slovakian guards captured us and were going to take us across to the German side. When we arrived at the border a snowstorm was raging, and rather than come out to the check point the German guard stayed inside; in light of this, the Slovakians told us to make our own way back to Poland. Once the guards had left us, we decided to turn around and resume the trek to Hungary; we didn’t give a second thought to returning to Poland. All that night, we meandered along. At dawn we arrived at a village where we became convinced we were on the German side. Having come upon a Ukrainian homestead, we had no other option but to turn ourselves in at the German Stützpunkt [outpost, Ger.]. There, a preliminary interrogation took place; then, under heavy escort, we were transported to the Gestapo prison in Sanok. We were interrogated straight away. I said that I had been returning from Hungary; people who stated they were heading to Hungary to join the Polish Armed Forces were summarily beaten. When everyone in our group stated we were returning from Hungary, the Gestapo refused to believe us and we were each struck in the face. Then the four of us were remanded to the prison, where we were held for half a year. The prison staff were made up of Polish and Ukrainian Volksdeutschers [ethnic Germans]. The prison warden was a Volksdeutscher named Fritz – a terrible scoundrel. He was always walking around with a pistol, dressed up in his prison guard uniform; he was hated

4 by everyone. He made use of an extensive network of informers; the information he gained from them he would relay directly to the Gestapo without verifying it first. I remember how a completely baseless allegation by one of his confidants – that Cell 31 was going to assault a guard and escape – triggered a visit by the Gestapo, who beat the prisoners of Cell 31 cruelly. This was in May 1940. The prison warden never seldom beat anyone himself, except when he caught someone breaking prison regulations. He would, however, seize any opportunity to confine people to the isolation cell. The prison in Sanok had been left unscathed by combat. It was a large three-storey building: on the second floor were men’s cells; on the first, a mix of women’s and men’s cells; and on the ground floor were various facilities such as the kitchen, baths, guardroom, stores, cells for criminal [note written above text] prisoners [/note], and isolation cells. Most of the cells had a seven-person capacity but in practice held a considerably greater number of people, ranging from thirty to thirty-five. They were filthy and there were lice; for thirty people there were three beds and six crude stuffed mattresses. The cells had no plumbing; water had to be carried to them. A bucket was placed inside for the relief of prisoners’ bodily needs. If the guard was Polish, this could be emptied twice a day; if he was Ukrainian, only once. The air was horrible and heavy, but what tormented us most were the lice – which were legion. The worst months were May and June, when it was hot. The diet: black ersatz coffee and 100 grams of bread in the morning; half a litre of vegetable and potato soup at noon; and in the evening half a litre of boiled barley, sometimes with a piece of meat. As a rule, political prisoners were not put to work. Singing was not permitted. Prisoners had [note written above text] ten-minute [/note] walks three times a weeks. Discipline at the prison was not all that strict except when the Gestapo dropped by; then military discipline would be in effect. The Gestapo men were usually drunk when they visited, and they would beat prisoners without being especially

5 abusive towards them. The prisoner population when I arrived was under 200; by May, it was in excess of 400. While at the prison in Sanok, I was summoned to the Gestapo for interrogation three times. I was treated passably, like at a police station, roughly. I was shoved about. No specific allegation had been made against me, so I was not beaten or tortured. I was later interrogated once more in the local prison. The interrogation was formal in nature; I was not beaten or tortured there either. In relation to the other prisoners, the Gestapo [note written above text] sometimes [/note] behaved with extreme brutality; I know of numerous cases where my cellmates were savagely beaten during questioning. Singled out for especially cruel treatment were guides, that is, those who led people across the border. The people incarcerated with me had either been trying to cross the border themselves or to lead others across it. I remember the guide Jan Grzyb from Poraj and his elderly 75-year-old father. Jan Grzyb was interrogated several times and would always come back savagely beaten. Unable to walk under his own strength, he would be shoved into the cell. Reportedly, his father was also beaten, but less, because he would pass out all by himself. Jan Grzyb said that when he passed out he would be doused with cold water and beaten again. He had black eyes and his entire body was bruised and livid; it was so bad that he couldn’t fully lie down. We took care of him and tried to help him on our own. The reason Jan Grzyb was repeatedly beaten was that he wouldn’t admit to guiding people across the border. I remember another guide, an NCO in the Polish Armed Forces whose name I don’t recall. He was a very brave lad; he refused to admit to his ‘work’ and was therefore beaten terribly, just as Grzyb was. I remember platoon leader and officer candidate Stalmach, first name Stanisław or Władysław, from Czeladź, Silesia. He was badly beaten for attempting to flee while being brought to the Gestapo station. Ukrainian auxiliaries, if they caught anyone crossing the border, would immediately conduct an interrogation which was in fact no more than a vicious beating. Ukrainian auxiliaries in German service

stood out for their extreme zeal; they were even more abusive towards their captives than the Gestapo were. Particularly egregious in their zeal were the auxiliaries in Wisłok, Komańcza, and Baligród. In addition to these Ukrainian servicemen, the Ukrainian civilian population were instructed to capture people crossing the border and received monetary rewards for doing so. In this, too, the Ukrainians were extremely zealous. They would capture any outsider in the village, beat him cruelly, and hand him over to the Germans. Everyone attempting to cross the border in December 1939 and January–February 1940 was, as a rule, beaten twice [note written above text] by the Gestapo [/note]: once for a free and independent Poland, and a second time for voluntarily enlisting in the Polish army. Later, due to an influx of prisoners, this practice was stopped. When, in the spring of 1940 (March), an increasing number of people began to flood in, our situation was uncertain; we were afraid of what they were going to do with us. [note written above text] It was then that [/note] transports began to leave the prison, destination unknown. Eventually, having grown weary of long confinement, we decided to plan our escape from the prison. It was a youthful bunch of fellows who were for the most part determined to do whatever it took; they were brave, strong military men. The greatest difficulty was that not everyone saw eye to eye. Moreover, there were a few dubious people from Sanok in the cell who, it was thought, might be undercover Ukrainian informants, so we had to keep things secret from them. I worked out an escape plan with a lieutenant who was imprisoned under the pseudonym Jan Pawlita; I myself had been caught with forged papers naming me as Stanisław Hudyka. Conditions were difficult as we had no materials, only our hands. We formed two groups: I took charge of one and Pawlita, the other. The plan was to wait for warden Fritz to visit the prison; then we would rush him, overpower him, seize his pistol and the keys from the guard accompanying him, unlock the cells, and flee from the prison. The plan failed because, during the [note written above text] attempted [/note] execution of it, one of my co-conspirators lost his nerve and stopped Antoni Holik

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Pawlita from attacking the warden. Warden Fritz sensed that something was afoot in the cell; he withdrew and reported this to the Gestapo. The following day, Gestapo men came and savagely whipped all the prisoners in our cell; then we were redistributed among various other cells. Another escape plan was later hatched by a different cell – No. 27 – which neighboured ours. The outcome was disastrous. Although they did manage to overpower a guard, seize his keys, and open several cells, they were observed from below by a Jew who then alerted the prison guards. The prisoners were left with no means of escape. The Gestapo came and savagely beat the entire prisoner population, whereas the participants [note written above crossing-out] inmates [/note] of Cell 27 were additionally punished with exhausting exercises. Then several who were considered the ringleaders were put in and beaten several times over before being transported away to Auschwitz. Among them were the sons of a doctor by the name of Nieć, from Sanok – young fellows, about 20 years old – very brave. I also remember a ‘raid’ on the Gestapo prison that took place on 3 May. All the SS men were ‘sloshed’. They beat, shoved, and kicked the prisoners. What the purpose of this visit was, I do not know. Sometime during the first ten days of June 1940, the Sondergericht came to Sanok and at that point everyone who had been trying to cross into Hungary was tried. The court was a mere formality; the accused were not provided any official defence. They couldn’t even speak on their own behalf and no evidence of guilt was shown before the court. The court pronounced sentences of death on the basis of Gestapo interrogation statements which had been forcibly extracted via beating and torture. Approximately 110 people were sentenced – all of them to death. I had already been released by the time the sentences were carried out in early July 1940 on a mountain outside of Sanok that is probably called Gruszka. I know that several of the men destined for execution managed to escape from the vehicle they were being driven in. One such man, I know for certain, was Jan Szalej from Cracow, a corporal and officer candidate in the air force. I worked on behalf of AK

8 in the Sanok area and I am very familiar with these matters. In prison, the inmate population was initially pervaded by depression. Then, as a result of the influx of new prisoners, artistic life began to flourish. On our own initiative, we organized comedy soirées; then began the making of bread figurines which were really rather well crafted. Religious life also occupied an important position. We organized communal prayer sessions; in hard times, people pray sincerely. There were a few atheists among us, but they kept quiet. Religious matters were handled by a seminarian from Leszno. In July 1940 throughout the Subcarpathian region – in Limanowa, Sącz, Jasło, Sanok, Tarnów, Rzeszów – there were numerous mass shooting executions of Poles suspected of attempting to flee to Hungary or being involved in resistance activities. Over one hundred people were executed in Sanok; in Jasło, eighty- three, two of whom escaped. A precise account of this execution was sent to the Polish authorities in London; it had been written in a highland dialect by a highlander guide who had fled the execution. I know that the Polish press in London published the account. In Tarnów, approximately thirty people were shot dead; in Sącz, over one hundred; and in Rzeszów, I don’t remember how many. I do know that the victims were buried in mass graves at the site of execution. People decorated these graves on All Saints’ Day. Later, in the environs of Jasło, Krosno, Sanok, and Brzozów, there were no mass executions, only individual ones. Things continued like this until 1943, when the Jews began to be executed in huge numbers. It was done in two places – Bierówka and Huta [Polańska], a mountain near [Nowy and Stary] Żmigród. Located at the execution site are mass graves of Jews. Jews were also shot at other locations. The Jews went to their deaths resigned and unresponsive. Yet we assisted the Jews that did escape and we helped them hide. When the Bolsheviks [sic] arrived, we were repaid

9 with base ingratitude: now they demanded guns and said they would wipe out the AK ‘bandits’ – the very people who had rescued them in their time of greatest need. I personally witnessed an execution of young Jewish men and women, no more than 18 or 20 years old. It was in a place called Dobrzechów near Jasło. I observed the execution from a faraway tree. In charge of the execution was starosta [approx. ‘county administrator’, Pol.] Gentz, who was lame in one leg. It was he who sprayed the victims with the first burst of gunfire. The youths were driven [note written above text] in motor vehicles [/note] to an elongated clearing. This was surrounded by SS men and Polish youths from the Baudienst [lit. ‘construction service’, Ger.], who were completely drunk. A bonfire blazed in the clearing. The Jewish youths stripped off their outer clothing, walked with linked arms in ranks of five or six, and were shot from behind. The Baudienst youths and SS men tossed them into the fire. Not all of them had been killed; the severely wounded were also tossed into the fire. One fellow managed to escape, but later fell into the hands of the police. The Jews were executed rather quickly, but the burning continued for roughly three days. Once the fire had burned out, the ashes were scattered over a stubble field and the bones thrown into the river; the entire field was ploughed over so that not a trace remained. This execution might have claimed approximately 200 lives. I know that at that time Jewish youths were shot en masse in various places, but in smaller groups. In 1943 and 1944, mass shootings of Polish political prisoners took place in Bierówka, in the Jewish cemetery in Jasło, in the [Nowy and Stary] Żmigród area, in the Jewish cemetery in Sanok, and in places where Germans had been killed – in retaliation for a single German, ten Poles would be shot dead. Apart from these, individual executions were quietly perpetrated against Poles whom the Germans found particularly inconvenient, mainly AK officers. Thus perished a second lieutenant in the infantry reserves, pseudonym Strup, a teacher from a place called Przybówka near Jasło. First, he was beaten and tortured

10 in a horrible manner. After his execution, we disinterred his remains and brought them to his home village. His arms were broken; his skin had been scratched by torture implements of some kind; and all over his body, especially on his chest, he had burn marks. Similarly executed after torture was Michalski, a member of the sabotage units. He, too, was scratched up by torture implements, his arms broken, his skin burned, as we later learned from Gestapo agent Teodor Drzyzga, who tortured him with acetic acid. Another man martyred this way was a Polish Armed Forces sergeant in the AK sabotage units, [illegible crossing-out] a highlander by the name of Kobylaniec, pseudonym Działko. His arms were twisted [note written above text] and broken [/note]. He was burned, severely beaten, his teeth knocked out; his genitals had been burned with a candle. He, too, had been tormented by Drzyzga, a terrible sadist who [note written above text] later told us about the torture [/note] himself. Działko was a very brave man and an exemplary soldier and officer. He had been privy to every secret and he died a hero’s death – despite tremendous agony, he didn’t betray the slightest detail. Notes added: on page 2, ‘and Second Lieutenant Zygmunt Kmita’; on page 3, ‘prisoners’, ‘ten-minute’; on page 4, ‘sometimes’; on page 5, ‘attempted’; on page 6, ‘inmates’; on page 8, ‘in motor vehicles’; and on page 9, ‘and broken’ as well as ‘later told us about the torture’. Read, signed, and accepted by Helena Miklaszewska Antoni Holik

The testimony is matter-of-fact and succinct. The testifier provides facts concisely without engaging in analysis. He strongly emphasizes the fact that Poles desired to make their way to Hungary at any cost so as to enlist in the Polish army. He describes this as a passion which was so intense among his military colleagues that no danger could dissuade them from pursuing it. The testimony concerning the martyrdom of his fellow AK fighters affects him deeply; it is clear that the deaths of the testifier’s colleagues were particularly difficult for him. In his words, they were martyrs and heroes, and their deaths were a great loss for Poland. Helena Miklaszewska [stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]