Dozens of homicides of Jews and a series of anti-Semitic incidents were reported.
A month ago, two out of nine Jews living in the village of Wąchock, were murdered. The others immediately escaped from the village. Small groups of heavily armed terrorists often come out of the nearby forests and stand on the streets where Jews live, creating panic among all the inhabitants of Jewish towns.
Inspector Zeliwski. Report for the Central Committee of Polish Jews, May 1945
We hereby inform you that on 18 October 1945 at 19.30 an attack by unknown assailants was carried out against the shelter of the Jewish Committee [Planty 7 str]. A grenade was thrown into the apartment located on the ground floor. As a result of the attack two students were seriously injured, one lightly, all are hospitalized. We have notified the local authorities
Letter from the Provincial Committee of Jews in Kielce to the Central Committee of Polish Jews in Warsaw, 19 October 1945
Walenty Błaszczyk comes to the police station at Sienkiewcza 45 Street before midnight and reports the disappearance of his 8-year-old son Henryk, a pupil at Piramowicz elementary school. Meanwhile, the boy unbeknownst to his parents was visiting his friends in the village Pielaki, near Mniów, where the boy often stayed with his parents during the war.
The search of the boy continues. Walenty Błaszczyk puts up notices with his son’s description and notifies the railway police station at Żelazna Street.
The search in the nearby village of Niewachlów is fruitless; the father asks that his son’s disappearance be announced from the pulpit in the church at Karczówka.
Henryk comes back home and tells his parents that he was kidnapped and detained in the basement of a house belonging to the Jews.
I saw Henryk entering the apartment, and with him some 20 people, young and older children and adults. I asked where he has been; he replied that on Monday 1 July on Herbska Street, a man gave him a package and 20 zlotych to carry to some house, without specifying which house. After arriving at their destination this man took the package and the money from Henryk. Henryk was placed in a dark, narrow cellar and he was not given any food. (Excerpt from the deposition of Walenty Błaszczyk, 4 July.)
The father notifies the police about his son’s arrival, adding that he was held by the Jews in a cellar.
The Błaszczyk family makes a deposition about a crime being committed, indicating that the boy was imprisoned in the house at Planty 7 Street.
The alleged perpetrator of kidnapping, Kalman Singer, whom the boy indicated, is arrested.
The President of the Jewish Committee doctor Seweryn Kahane calls for the release of Singer, stating that at Planty 7 Street there is no cellar.
After entering the building the plainclothes and uniformed policemen confirm that there is no basement inside. A crowd gathers in front of the house, surrounded by the policemen. Capt. Jan Mucha from the Voivodeship Office of State Security heads to Planty 7 Street with seven policemen from the guard platoon.
Doctor Seweryn Kahane asks the captain of State Security Mieczysław (Morris) Kwaśniewski to call the governor and the bishop of Kielce Czesław Kaczmarek to inform them of what is happening. The Bishop is not in Kielce. Dr. Kahane also notifies the vice-governor Urbanowicz about the events and asks the head of The Voivodeship Office of State Security in Kielce major Władysław Sobczyński to send an operational company of the police.
Military police troops, soldiers from the internal security the 4th Infantry Division and from the town command appear in front of the building. The soldiers stand among the thickening crowd, giving faith to the rumors about the murder of Polish children by Jews. The policemen and the soldiers enter the building. The officers demand that the Jews give up their weapons. They confiscate half a dozen revolvers. A few shots are heard. Some victims are thrown out from the second floor to the street. Other residents are conducted out of the building, where a crowd of civilians and men in uniforms is standing. Over a dozen people are killed within the first half an hour. Those who are wounded are being finished off.
Some shots are heard; two soldiers kill doctor Seweryn Kahane, who tried to arrange a rescue.
The fire brigade appears, tries to disperse the crowd. Those carrying out the pogrom prevent them from doing it and force them to withdraw.
The information about the tragic events reaches the diocesan curia. The parish priest of the cathedral Roman Zelek and priest Jan Danielewicz come to Planty Street, they are turned back by an officer, who says that the situation is under control. The priests return at 2.30 p.m.
The Minister of State Security Stanisław Radkiewicz and the head chief of police Franciszek Jóźwiak receive information from Kielce. They issue a categorical ban of use of firearms against the crowd.
The police cadets and soldiers of the 2nd infantry division repel the crowd from the building, they transport the injured and about twenty dead to the municipal hospital.
The pogrom expands to the streets of the town. The Jews are brought out of their homes, beaten in the streets; there are cases of Poles being beaten. Around 1 p.m., after the train from Częstochowa arrives in Kielce, the Jews exiting the railway station are beaten in Sienkiewicza Street.
Arrival of inspectors from the Central Committee of the Polish Workers’ Party, senior officers of units stationed in Kielce, the chief of Voivodeship Office of State Security and the head of the Soviet garrison. Soldiers cordon off the crowd. However, many reports say that the cordon was not maintained and the soldiers mixed with the crowd. Looting of small items in the apartments of the building. The surviving residents of the building hide where they can.
Hostile civilians gather in front of the hospital. Part of the policemen from Planty Street is sent to protect the wounded.
During the break, workers storm the gate of the foundry and armed with truncheons, knives and metal rods go towards Planty Street.
W. Sobczyński, J. Kalinowski, H. Urbanowicz and J. Lewin cannot agree on who is to go to Planty 7 Street, to address the crowd and try to prevent further murders.
Workers from “Ludwików” join the crowd, they break the cordon by the army and the police, forcing their way into the building, and start again to murder the Jews.
A new act of the tragedy starts as the civilians travelling in trains which go through Kielce identify and pick up the Jews.
A unit commanded by the Chief of Staff of the 2nd infantry Division Lt. Col. Pollak arrives. Someone shoots in the air; this and the determined posture of the Commander help push the crowd away from the yard and the Planty Street. A cordon of soldiers, police and military police surrounds the building.
People wounded and the bodies of those killed in the building at Planty Street and in the yard are transported to the hospital. In the fear of other attacks the wounded are guarded.
The policeman Stanisław Mazur and his colleagues search an apartment belonging to a Jewish family. Regina Fisz with an infant and Abram Moszkowicz are loaded on a truck and driven away from the town.
Troops and tanks from the garrison in Góra Kalwaria approach Kielce
Regina Fisz and her baby are murdered by policemen. Abram Moszkowicz escapes to a nearby forest.
The Governor holds a meeting.
Troops from Góra Kalwaria arrive in Kielce. Military patrols check IDs in the streets.
Abram Moszkowicz arrives from Cedzyna, he is beaten again and finds a save haven in the hospital.
The draft of the proclamation “To the society of Kielce” is discussed at a meeting of the representatives of the political parties.
A curfew is imposed and the officers of Voivodeship Office of State Security start arresting people.
Bolesław Bierut informs the meeting of the presidium of the National Council about the events in Kielce.
Gen. Stanislaw Stecem and an investigating group from Warsaw arrive in Kielce to carry out a preliminary investigation; representatives of the Central Committee of Polish Jews – Adolf Berman and Paul Zelicki, as well as Zenon Kliszko, a member if the Central Committee of the Polish Workers’ Party also arrive.
A gathering at the “Ludwików” foundry condemns the crime “committed by reactionaries”. A statement “To the people of Kielce” signed by the representatives of the Polish Workers’ Party, Polish Socialist Party, Polish Peasant Party, Democratic Party and the trade unions is posted around town. The searches and arrests continue.
Twenty-eight wounded Jews and 60 Jews who survived the pogrom are brought to Łódź by a special train of the Polish Red Cross.
The Minister of State Security Radkiewicz, the head of the Supervisory Prosecutor and a group of officers from the Ministry of State Security arrive in town. A Special Commission of the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Justice also arrives. The National Council in Kielce passes a resolution condemning the pogrom.
The policemen involved in the events and those who looted the Jewish building at Planty Street are arrested: Lt. Col. W. Kuźnicki, major W. Sobczyński, major K. Gwiazdowicz, captain D. Sidor, S. Sędek, E. Zagórski.
The letter of the diocesan curia “To all parish priests of Kielce” condemning the crime is read in churches throughout Kielce.
The funeral procession departing from the city hospital – through the streets Kosciuszko, Słowackiego and Marmurowa – arrives to Pakosz. Behind the trucks with the coffins walk some 10.000 people.
The show trial against 12 people accused of beating, instigating the beating and murder of Jews starts before the Supreme Military Court in assize. The accused were defended by public attorneys: Z. Chmielewski, S. Grzywaczewski, J. Okińczyc, Z. Wiatr and R. Cichowski. They question bringing the accused before the Military Court. The indictment includes statements critical of the Polish underground.
On the second day of the trial, 22 witnesses gave testimony. Evidence brought by the defense was rejected. The participation of the army and the police Participation in the events was questioned.
The primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond, told the American journalists, that the “course of the unfortunate and regrettable events in Kielce shows that they cannot be attributed to racism. They arose on a very different ground, a painful and tragic one. These accidents are a terrible disaster…”
On the third day of the trial the verdict is announced. The Supreme Military Court sentenced nine people to death by firing squad, three received prison sentences.
The Diocesan curia issues a statement and recommends that it be read from the pulpits on 14 July. It called on the „Catholic society of the diocese to remain calm and to show their understanding of the seriousness of the moment in their town interest and that of the nation”. It condemned acts that were affecting the most vital human values and violating the basic principles of Catholicism: “love thy neighbor, regardless of origin, nationality and religion”.
The assembly of the judges of the Supreme Court under the leadership of colonel Aleksander Michniewicz and the prosecutor of the Supreme Military Prosecution Office Lt. Col. Antoni Trela confirmed all the death sentences. The objection that the trial should have taken place before a Civil Court was dismissed.
A firing squad carries out the death sentences. The families and defenders were not informed about the place and date of execution; the burial place was not disclosed.
The First Secretary of the local Polish Workers’ Party, the Kielce vice-governor, the local administrator, the local prosecutor, the head of the local police and the deputy commander of the Second Infantry Division were fired. It was announced that Kielce voivodeship would be transformed into Radom and Częstochowa voivodeships
The trials against the perpetrators of the pogrom continue; also against the head of Voivodeship State Security, the commander and deputy commander of the Kielce police. On September 25th, three policemen were condemned for looting (sentenced to six months to two years of imprisonment); on 10 October, a soldier was sentenced to five years imprisonment for similar crimes (he was covered by an amnesty), on 18-22 November 15 people accused of beating and theft and incitement to murder were tried: five were acquitted, one was sentenced to life and nine received sentences going from three to five years; on 6 December six soldiers of Military Security and one from the prison battalion were sentenced for murdering Jews and instigating to murder; in December, the District Court in Warsaw sentenced to one year imprisonment the deputy commander of Kielce police while the head of Voivodeship Office of State Security was acquitted.