Salzburg, 19 January 1946
District Court, cell 18
Wawrzyniec Jaszczenko (Pole)
Curriculum Vitae from 1939 to 1945
In 1939 I voluntarily joined the Polish Army, and I fought the Germans till the end.
I was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on 12 August 1940 for serving in a Polish secret military organization during the German occupation. It was the first transport to Auschwitz from Warsaw (consisting of 1,800 men).
We were all placed in blocks 4 and 5. I was in block 4. The command over blocks 4 and 5 was given to people who spoke German well. They used their power fully and were proficient at beating their subordinates. They would always beat the disobedient ones. The following year they fell into disgrace with the people who directed the work. The second block leader was the worst of them. He would terrorize everyone, without exception, and would beat us to death. He assigned work in the block and nobody could refuse to perform what he demanded. Everyone knew him and was aware that they would be immediately killed if they refused to do anything he wanted. He would beat people in all units, although he was only in command of block 4. This was the reason why tasks were constantly being reassigned to different workers in the block. He was called Krankemann, and death ended his cruel career. The camp’s SS commander found out that Krankemann had buried a lot of money from illegal trading in the canteen. For this reason, he was shot dead by the SS. I did not see it with my own eyes, but the whole camp talked about it.
I stayed in Auschwitz till March 1942. I worked as a day laborer, a bricklayer, for four weeks under the command of Krankemann in block 4. Then, I was assigned there to clean the privies, corridors, and the room. I was a common worker in block 4 and I was responsible for keeping it clean. I had no authority. Krankemann would often beat me because my fellow inmates behaved inappropriately. I was not able to keep the whole building clean with all those prisoners, and I expected to be punished with death by Krankemann for the work I did not finish. I was weak and I had not enough strength, so I was often punished with beating, because I was not able to perform my tasks. I was nobody’s superior nor was I a kapo in the camp.
In March 1942, I was relocated to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, and six months later to the Dachau camp, where I was assigned to a work brigade in the Messerschmitt factory. As punishment for a sabotage attempt, I was beaten in front of all my fellow inmates, so together with my friend Jerzy Niewolny, a Pole, we decided to escape. We stole Messerschmitt plans and tried to head towards the Allied troops.
We did not know the area, so we were caught by civil police in Salzburg and brought back to Dachau. Each of us was whipped 25 times and assigned to a punishment kommando. I was frozen three times and used as a guinea pig in experiments by the camp doctors.
In the spring of 1944, we were relocated to Mauthausen and placed in block 23. After three weeks of quarantine, I was sent to the St. Valentin factory as a turner. I committed sabotage in this factory too. When the factory was bombed in 1945, we were evacuated to Ebensee. I was a common worker there, I was not a Werkmeister. My superiors beat me.
I deny the accusations made in the testimonies, and I can prove I have been unjustly imprisoned. I do not know what I am accused of.
After I was freed by the Allied troops, I was placed in the Polish camp in Ebensee. The Allies and the Polish Committee gave me an identification card confirming that I was a former concentration camp prisoner. On 16 September 1945, I left Ebensee and headed to Braunau, where I joined the 3rd battalion of the 1st company of a Polish unit. I came to Salzburg to collect my civil clothes, which were stored in the Polish barrack in Liberty Hellbrunn.
The commander of the battalion allowed me to stay in Salzburg for two days, from 21 to 22 of September 1945. There was a quarrel in the Polish Liberty block. During the fight, I was hit on the top of the head. The MP and the camp police arrived, and I was sent to a state hospital. After I was released from the hospital, I went to the Polish committee to collect my documents, but I was arrested by the MP and an Austrian policeman. They took my documents away and put me in the District Court’s prison.