JÓZEF WRÓBEL

On 3 September 1947 in Ruda Śląska, the Municipal Court in Ruda Śląska, with Judge Z. Skąpski (MA) presiding, and with the participation of a reporter, clerk R. Geilke, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Józef Wróbel
Age 27
Parents’ names Jan and Agnieszka
Place of residence Ruda Śląska, Krakowska Street 12
Occupation clerk at the Rybnik Association of Coal Industry
Relationship to the parties none

I was brought to the Auschwitz camp as a prisoner in March 1942. At the end of that year, I was assigned to an SS division’s storehouse, where I worked as a clerk. The deputy of the storehouse director was Artur Breitwieser. At first, he had the rank of SS-Rottenführer, but in 1944 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer. I heard that he was a Polish citizen from Łódź, and that he had a Master’s degree in Law. He spoke Polish very well and he would speak German only if he was not able to communicate with a prisoner in Polish. I never saw him beat the prisoners or abuse them physically in any other way. However, he zealously performed his duties and reported any offence committed by prisoners to the storehouse director, who would punish them personally.

I did not see Breitwieser do anything good for the prisoners. At the beginning of 1944, as a result of his wrongdoings, Breitwieser and the whole storehouse personnel were transferred to a different location, and I lost contact with him.