Radio station RMF-FM in Krakow, Poland
sent reporter Marcin Buczek to Radzilow to interview residents regarding the
recent revelations that the Polish people were responsible for the murder of the
town's Jews during the Holocaust. The interviews were aired on March 26, 2001 on the program "Obraz
Dnia" (Picture of the Day), part of the station's News & Current
Affairs Division. The interviews are in Polish. Some of the
people clearly confirm that the Poles did play the major role in organizing and
committing the crime. Some of the people say that mainly the Germans should be
blamed. One of the inhabitants of Radzilow only reads the sign at the disputed
monument in Radzilow. The edited version, examining both views, was put together
solely by Radio station RMF-FM.
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Translation of Edited Version:
I was working with my brother in
the field outside Okrasin and we saw this glow. We were trying to guess:
Racibory, Radzilow. Father came in a carriage to pick us up and told us that the
Jews had been burned alive. They were sitting in the park, but where this park
was, in this place now or somewhere else? Well, the Jews were in one place.
Supposedly, they were to do some weeding, first at the market square, then...
The Jews were run through the streets. One Jewess
asked: "Please Miss, save me." My mother extended her hand to grab her and pull
her into our house, but there were these Germans standing there, with skulls on
their hats and with weapons and they threatened to take my mother. They were
gathered in one place at this market place and then. This place, where they were
murdered, was outside Radzilow. I rode with my father through there, because we
lived close and he said: "The Jews were burned there."
In 1941, fascists murdered 800 people of Jewish
nationality, 500 of them were burned alive in a barn. Let us honor their memory.
Most likely some Poles participated, but there were also Germans. There were
only a few Germans here - gendarmes. When a surveillance team passed by, they
did not stop. How many gendarmes were in this area? Two, and their chief. The
chief did not speak any Polish, the other two did, they were from Silesia. Poles
help them a little bit, but not much. This interview is too late, 60 years, who
remembers, who remembers. What happened here is my business, I remember this for
myself.
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