During the occupation, the Germans were murdering Polish elites. They also took over the Polish economic system, including factories. The network of factories was controlled by Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG) – a Leipzig-based weapons manufacturer.  The director of the Skarżysko Kamienna branch was Egon Dalski, the Leipzig Town Hall clerk and an SS Officer.

This type of factory hired Jews, imprisoned in labor camps, and Poles known as "free" workers. However, the Poles faced deportation to forced labor camps in Germany in case they did not want to work. Tadeusz Nowak was one of the Polish workers in Skarżysko-Kamienna. He worked as a locksmith, and at the same time, as a soldier in the resistance Home Army, he smuggled ammunition to fight against the Germans. Despite the death penalty announced by the occupiers for even the lightest help to Jews, Nowak and his group were delivering food and letters to Jewish prisoners. Just before the Easter of 1943, Tadeusz Nowak was caught providing such assistance by the German security service (Werkschutz). On 21 April he was sentenced to public execution by hanging. During the execution the rope broke, so the Werkschutz commander shot death the Polish brave man on the spot. Tadeusz Nowak's body was hung on the factory gate in order to scare off other workers. According to some witnesses, a plaque with the inscription "This Pole gave bread to Jews" was mounted on it.

Polish resistance movement magazines called for such attitudes: Germans imposed the death penalty for aiding Jews, who in a minuscule number were able to escape from their oppressors. Each honest person treats these threats with contempt, because they know that help in need, the saving of a close one facing death, is an obligation stronger than death. The obligation of every Pole is to aid the victims of German bestiality. (from a feature in the underground socialist magazine  “WRN” No. 18 of 28 September 1942).

Watch previous episodes of the series "Not only about the Ulma's".