FRANCISZEK KAZIMIERSKI

On 12 September 1947 in Warsaw, Appellate Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, acting at the written request of the First Prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (Ref. no. NTN 719/47), in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), and in connection with art. 254, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the person specified below, a former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Franciszek Kazimierski
Age 39
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Occupation education office clerk
Place of residence Warsaw, Hoża Street 88

I was interned at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 7 January 1941 to 19 October 1944. My prison number was 8060. I was all the time at the main camp, but for a year and a half, I was assigned to the Budy camp. I worked as a food carrier (Essenfahrer) and also did some farm labor. From among the SS men whose photographs have been publicly displayed I have recognized SS-Unterscharführer Ludwig, whom I knew from his time as stableman (Stalmeister) at stable II and then as supervisor of women’s kommandos [work detail] tasked with farm labor. Carrying out farm labor at Budy, I was severely beaten by him for a slight oversight concerning harrowing, namely, the harrow missed a patch of the field which can happen even to the most skillful farmer. Ludwig beat me with a rod on that occasion. From my time at Budy, I remember two SS men by the name of Bülow. Aleksander was malicious and in the event of a foul mood he harassed prisoners and got them to work excessively. When I worked at Budy, the SS men shot dead 19 prisoners there (I might be mistaken as to the number, but there were several of them, in any case), working with the forest kommando. Two Gypsies fled the kommando. In retaliation, the SS men executed all Jews and Russians on this kommando, only sparing the Reichsdeutschkapo and the Pole, who worked as a carter. Myself and my comrades were assigned to loading the corpses on the cart. These corpses were transported to the camp. It was rumored that on the morning of the next day someone heard the spluttering or coughing of someone lying among the corpses. Apparently, he was only injured. In connection with this case, the kapo made a statement, which suggested that the execution was carried out in response to attempted escape or mutiny. In reality, the executed were not running, and the SS men wiped them out in retaliation for the escape of the Gypsies.

The report was read out. At this point the interview and the report were concluded.