Warsaw, 26 August 1947. A member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the obligation to tell the truth, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Eugeniusz Malanowski, former prisoner of the concentration camp in Majdanek |
| Parents’ names | Józef and Karolina, née Ozdobińska |
| Date of birth | 8 July 1905, in Warsaw |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Grochowska Street 83, flat 19 |
| Education | secondary |
| Occupation | owner of a precious and semi-precious metals refinery |
From January 1943 until April 1944, I was a prisoner at the concentration camp in Majdanek. In March 1943 (I don’t remember the exact date), I was sent to block 19 due to a leg injury. It was a block occupied by weak prisoners who were resting and, to a lesser degree, those evading hard work or selections of the sick in other blocks. That block was created in February or March 1943 (I don’t remember the exact date), after a large transport of men from Pawiak (about 2,000) had arrived. I came to the camp with that transport.
At the end of March or at the beginning of April 1944 (I don’t remember the exact date), the leader of the crematorium kommando, Muhsfeldt, arrived at the camp, accompanied by two SS officers, whose names I don’t remember.
I recognize Muhsfeldt in the photograph shown to me (the witness was shown a photograph captioned “Muhsfeldt Erich,” sent with the letter from 7 August 1947, no. 779/47 from the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Kraków).
A Pole, Janusz Olczyk – currently under arrest in the West, according to the newspapers – was the block leader in block 19. Olczyk’s arrest was mentioned in the Życie Warszawy a month ago.
Muhsfeldt picked over two hundred prisoners at random in the following way: he was walking around the block and pointing his finger to let the block leader know which ones he chose. On the following day, the prisoners chosen by Muhsfeldt were summoned by the block leader, told to get undressed and then loaded onto a truck.
The block leader hid several prisoners, among them myself and Hieronim Tomaszewski (currently residing in Warsaw, I don’t know the exact address). Loaded onto the car, the prisoners were transported to the gas chamber, where all of them were gassed and their bodies were burned in the crematorium. On the same day, the names of those prisoners were removed; my friends employed at the camp’s administrative office confirmed that they received a list of dead prisoners from the block, which included those taken to the gas, and the families received death notices afterward. My family received such a notice.
The prisoners who worked near the bath, next to which the gas chamber was situated, recounted that they saw the prisoners from our block being let into the gas chamber, 50 at a time.
I don’t remember the names of my friends from the administrative office or those who worked at the bath.
I hid the list of those taken to the gas under the monument in the third field at the camp in Majdanek. I hid other documents related to German crimes in block 1. I haven’t had a chance to check whether the documents are still there.
Engineer Stanisław Zelend, director of the Czytelnik in Warsaw, who built the crematorium in Majdanek, could give many details about the conditions at the camp.
At that the report was concluded and read out.