Wdowen Wasyl, born on 20 February 1923 at Zatwanica, single, Ukrainian farm laborer,
both last residing in Uffenheim, both under arrest pending trial are guilty: Kaminska slapped a German soldier, threatened him with a hoe, and threw a stone after him; furthermore offered resistance to a policeman when she was being arrested. Wdowen tried by force to prevent Kaminska’s arrest.
They are therefore sentenced to death; Kaminska under articles II, III, and XIV of the Penal Ordinance for Poles; Wdowen is sentenced as a public enemy.
Findings
The defendant Kaminska, who belongs to the Polish ethnic group and who on 1 September 1939 was residing in the territory of the former Polish State, attended elementary school and after having finished school worked as a laborer on several farms in Poland. She was married in 1929 and since then had three children. Her husband was killed in action during the Polish campaign in October 1939. At the middle of December 1939 she came to Germany being committed to work there. She was first employed for over a year by a farmer in Weidenheim, then for a year by the farmer Landshuter at Unternzenn, and since 15 March 1942 she has been employed by the farmer Gundel at Uffenheim. Leo Gundel is 60 years old and fragile; his daughter manages the farm. At Weidenheim the defendant Kaminska met the codefendant Wdowen who belongs to the Ukrainian ethnic group. Wdowen never attended school, he can neither read nor write, nor had he learned a trade. Until he came to Germany in March 1940 for labor commitment he worked as a farm laborer for his parents and for other farmers in the territory of the former Polish state. In Germany he was first employed by a farmer in Weidenheim, and in March 1942 he was transferred to Gundel together with Kaminska. Wdowen started a love affair with the defendant Kaminska in Weidenheim. The child born in June 1942 is a result of that relationship. The defendant took the child to her mother in Wussiowa in March 1943.
On 1 July 1942 the two defendants entered Gundel’s home and demanded money from the daughter, Marie, for the journey which the defendant Kaminska had made to Poland to take her child to her mother. When the daughter refused the request, they turned to old Gundel who was also present in the room. When he, too, refused to pay any money to Kaminska both defendants became more and more insistent; the defendant Wdowen even gave the farmer a push. In his distress, Gundel called for the help of the army private Anton Wanner, who used to work on the farm as a laborer and who happened to be spending his leave there. Wanner was in uniform. He came into the living room and told the defendants to leave immediately. The defendant Kaminska at once attacked the soldier, slapping his face once. Thereupon, Wanner slapped her face. Now a fight resulted during which his infantry assault badge fell to the ground. Wanner, feeling himself threatened, drew his bayonet and yelled at Wdowen, “Get out, you bully.” The defendant Kaminska by this time ran out of the room and took a hoe which was leaning near the staircase. She did not get a chance of attacking him as the soldier quickly closed the door.
Shortly afterward Wanner was riding on his bicycle along the road to Uffenheim to go to the police station. When he was passing the two defendants who were walking in the same direction, the defendant Kaminska threw a stone weighing half a pound after the soldier without, however, hitting him.
The next day police sergeant Dirmann went to Gundel’s farm, but the defendant Kaminska was working in the fields. There, the police official told her to follow him. The defendant Kaminska followed him unwillingly and hesitatingly. The codefendant Wdowen ran after the police official, although the latter had forbidden him to follow them. On the way Dirmann twice slapped Wdowen’s face to force him to turn back. Despite this he followed the two to the prison cell. When Dirmann wanted to put Kaminska in the cell she began screaming. Wdowen rushed up to them and embraced Kaminska with both hands so that the police official was prevented from arresting Kaminska. Only after several other people who were called in by the police official came to his aid, he succeeded in overpowering the two defendants and putting Kaminska in the cell.
The defendant Kaminska states that she learned before 1 July 1942 at the employment office that the farmer Gundel had to pay her travel expenses both ways. On 1 July 1942, she made only these demands. Besides, she only slapped the soldier after he had slapped her face. She had not purposely torn off his infantry assault medal. It was true she had fetched the hoe but she had not raised it to assault the soldier but only to intimidate him.
The defendant further admits having picked up a stone on the way to Uffenheim and having thrown it after the soldier; she merely mentioned as an excuse that she had been so angry that she had picked up a stone and thrown it at Wanner.