On 11 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 | Aleksander Miziewicz |
Age | 23 |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
Occupation | journalist |
Place of residence | Warsaw, [...] |
I was interned at the Auschwitz concentration camp when I was 17. I remained there between January 1942 and fall 1944 as a Polish political prisoner number 25410. Initially, I was at the main camp, working with different kommandos [work details], and in spring 1943, I was transferred to the Birkenau camp, where, in this particular order, I stayed in the sections of the male camp designated E, F, and finally D.
From my time at Birkenau, I remember SS-Oberscharführer Plagge, who in summer 1943 fulfilled the function of the Rapportführer [report leader] at gypsy camp E. Plagge would get drunk, he was drunk most of the time and he moved around the camp holding a bullwhip, with which on the slightest pretext, and most often for no reason whatsoever, he beat the prisoners he stumbled across. After the escape of one prisoner, he held a roll-call for all orderlies from the gypsy hospital in section E. This roll-call at night lasted around five hours. Plagge at his own discretion ordered that a couple of function prisoners be punished with 25 lashes, and the sentence was carried out straight away.
Plagge’s showing up wreaked havoc among prisoners because he was commonly feared due to his wild outbursts.
The report was read out. At this point the interview and the report were concluded.