On 16 December 1947 in Radom, the Investigating Judge from the District Court in Radom in the person of Acting Judge B. Papiewski heard the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the Judge took an oath therefrom pursuant to the provisions of Article 254 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, following which the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisław Nowocień |
| Age | 27 years old |
| Parents’ names | Michał and Stanisława, née Gutkowska |
| Place of residence | Radom, Chłodna Street 80 |
| Occupation | unemployed |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
From 25 October 1941 to 6 May 1942 I was in the camp in Oświęcim. Until February 1942, the defendant Chmielewski was commandant of the above named camp; he was succeeded by Seidler, who as of 6 May 1942 – the day I was deported to Mauthausen – still remained in the position of camp commandant. From the beginning of my stay in the Oświęcim camp, Palicz was the acting head of the PolitischeAbteilung. All orders were issued by Chmielewski, both for the personnel – the camp guard, comprising solely SS-men – and the prisoners who performed certain functions, for instance as kapos or vorarbeiters. It is important to note that Chmielewski had once been a Pole, he was married to a Pole and both he and his wife came from Lwów. His wife was very kind towards the prisoners, to which Chmielewski was very much opposed, and when he noticed that she gave someone food, he would take it away, preferring to give it to a dog, and the prisoner in question would be punished with whipping.
Towards the end of December 1941 I witnessed the following event: one prisoner, compelled by hunger, took hold of some frozen swede that was lying near the kitchen, but Chmielewski noticed this and ordered that this starved man be brought to him, and proceeded to beat him with his hands; when the prisoner fell to the ground and lay in the snow he kicked him so badly that as a result the prisoner died shortly after.
I heard from my fellow inmates who worked in kommandos near the PolitischeAbteilung that Chmielewski had reportedly said that he didn’t want to soil his hands with human blood, as he had people who would do it for him. During the period of my stay in Oświęcim, Chmielewski and Palicz instructed their subordinates that a prisoner could not live longer than half a year, and a Jew no more than 24 hours. The mortality rate was so high that they soon had the register of prisoners all mixed up, and therefore introduced tattooing.
As for Seidler, I can say that while I was in Oświęcim during his rule, the mortality rate was equally high as during Chmielewski’s time, and executions in Block 11 (the isolation block) were no less frequent. In the camp, commanded by either Chmielewski or Seidler, the executions by shooting took place almost every day, in groups containing an undetermined number of people.
Palicz could be called an “executioner”, as he used to shoot prisoners himself with an automatic weapon, assisted by the SS-men. When the group was smaller, Palicz shot his victims one by one, and in larger groups he executed three people at a time.
I was once ordered to dig earth near the death wall, actually by the wall itself, and then I saw that the soil was soaked about a meter deep with human blood, which testifies to the number of executions carried out there.
Towards the end of February 1942 a group of Russian officers, numbering some 40 people, were brought to the camp. On that day we were forbidden to leave the blocks, where we were kept for the whole day without any food; we heard frequent shots then. This also happened in Block 11, where Palicz and the SS-men were present. On the following day the morning roll call took place in the courtyard of Block 11, and the walls of blocks 10 and 11 bore marks of blood and pieces of human flesh.
At the beginning of April [19]42 I saw 4–5 trucks with men, women and children come to Block 11. The execution lasted the whole day, well into the night. Afterwards many small items such as beads, stamps [?] etc. were to be found in the courtyard, and when I was cleaning at the attic I saw bigger heaps of underwear, women’s clothing and children’s little shoes.
In December 1941 I collected about 4 kilograms of breadcrumbs from the warehouse and concealed them in the legs of my pants in order to take them to my block and save myself from hunger. One SS-man noticed it and took me to Palicz, who said something to me in German, but I didn’t understand it; then he ordered me to eat all of this bread. I wasn’t able to eat that much, and then Palicz began to beat me and ordered that I receive 25 lashes, and then he took me to the attic of Block 11, where I was suspended with my hands tied behind my back and fastened to some post, with my legs some distance above the ground, so that under the weigh of my body my twisted arms were straightening; I was suspended in this way for about half an hour. After this punishment I went to work, but I lost the use of my arms for approximately three months, and my friends had to feed and dress me.
The methods of beating and torture to which the inmates of the Oświęcim camp were subjected simply defy description.
I have nothing more to add. The report was read out.