On 12 September 1947 in Kraków, a member of the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Municipal Judge Dr. Henryk Gawacki, acting at the written request of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47), and 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) in connection with Articles 254, 107, 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner named below. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Michał Mysiński |
| Age | 50 years old |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | barber |
| Place of residence | Kraków, [...] |
| Testifies freely. |
I was incarcerated at the Auschwitz camp in a group of 48 people from Kraków. I stayed in the camp from 8 May 1941 until 17 January 1945. I was then transferred to other camps: in Mauthausen, Melk, and lastly in Ebensee. At Auschwitz I was a Polish political prisoner number 15432.
The entire group was placed in the so-called Erziehungskompanie [corrective company], quartered in block numbered 12 at that time. I remained there for eight days. The only way prisoners could move in this block was while squatting down. We ate our meals in the same position. On top of that, after the evening roll call we had to continue to work on the camp premises until 8.30 p.m.
Eight days later we were all assigned to a penal company quartered in a block that was later numbered 11. The block had no toilet facilities, shower rooms or plumbing yet. We came back from work dirty and went to sleep in that state. We could relieve ourselves only in our daily workplace, outside the camp. Not until around the end of July 1941 were we allowed to receive medical assistance. These conditions caused a high mortality rate. In the block housing 800–1,000 prisoners, 80–100 prisoners died every day.
I remained in the penal company until 8 August 1941. I was then assigned to the Holzhof [timber storage] for a short period of time. After that, for about 2 months, I performed the duties of a Stubendienst (barrack orderly) under a kapo. Later, I worked in “Buna” for six weeks, and lastly, until March 1942, I worked peeling potatoes. I was then transferred to the camp in Birkenau, where I worked in the prisoners’ kitchen until 22 September 1942. I was transported back to the parent camp and worked as a barber in the SS-Rasierstube [barbershop for the SS] for the rest of my stay at Auschwitz. From our group of 48 detainees at Auschwitz, only N. Kolesar (residing in Kraków) and I live to this day.
As I look through the list of the former members of the SS armed crew, these are the names I recall:
1. Aumeier, who succeeded Fritzsch as Lagerführer [head of the camp], was notorious for his cruelty and sadism. While I worked in the prisoners’ kitchen during my detention in Birkenau, I saw Aumeier shoot 20 prisoners from the penal company with a pistol. This happened in the courtyard of the brick building (block 1 at the time) located opposite the kitchen. The talk around the camp was that the penal company had been working outside the camp mining sand or gravel. For an unknown reason, the SS guards started shooting at the prisoners who in turn started running in order to save themselves. The camp authorities called it mutiny. In the afternoon, all of those prisoners were marched to the front of block 1 and made to sit there the entire night until the next day, while they were given no food and their hands were bound with straps. The following day, about 40 prisoners from a list were taken from this company and escorted to the Political Department. When they came back around noon, all of the prisoners were herded to the block. Then Aumeier, Grabner, Schwarzhuber, Fitze and others drove up. One of the SS men called out the identification numbers of the prisoners in the block, and as the individual prisoners were coming out of the block, Aumeier shot them. He killed 20 people in this manner. He then told the entire group of prisoners that if they did not give up the leaders of the mutiny before 2.00 p.m., all prisoners would be killed. After 2.00 p.m., prisoners with red marks (circles on their backs and on the side of the trousers) were led or dragged out of the Revier [camp hospital] and placed alongside the prisoners from the SK [Strafkompanie – penal company]. I distinctly saw the sick and staggering director Chodorowski being dragged out of the Revier. Around 4.00 p.m., once the prisoners from the SK had their hands untied, all prisoners were made to walk in the direction of crematoria. I was counting the subsequent fives of the prisoners and counted 278 people in total. All of them were Polish. This occurred in May or June 1942.
In October 1942, about 300 people from Lublin were massacred in block 11, in the parent camp. The windows of the Rasierstube faced the road leading to the main gate of the camp and on that day I clearly saw as Höß, Aumeier, Palitzsch and others went into block 11. The corpses of the murdered prisoners were later driven to Crematorium I and blood was all over the road.
Aumeier introduced the punishment by flogging, which involved up to 150 lashes given in the roll call area, in front of all prisoners. On a daily basis, Aumeier beat, kicked and administered punishments – most frequently in the form of detention in the bunker.
2. Maximilian Grabner was a scourge of the camp, terrorizing not only the prisoners, but also the SS men. All shooting, be it mass or individual, occurred either on Grabner’s orders or at least with his knowledge and consent. Grabner would come to such executions in block 11 all the time. When he conducted interrogations, the prisoners were beaten senseless and frequently killed. Grabner was also notorious for thorough body searches to which he often subjected prisoners who were walking past. Stanisław Dubiel, who worked as a gardener at Höß’s house, told me that as he was leaving after work, Höß would often tell him, “Just do not let Grabner catch you”, referring to the fact that Dubiel smuggled fruit for himself.
3. Obersturmführer Josten Heinrich – the name and the man himself are well known to me. He always called the Poles swine, dogs, or damned Poles – which indicated that he hated them with passion. Some SS men who disliked Josten because he treated them harshly told me that Josten was in charge of the firing squads which executed prisoners in sand pits (Kiesgrube). He also frequently took part in receiving transports at the railway ramp in Birkenau.
4. When I worked in the prisoners’ kitchen in Birkenau, I often saw Plagge set dogs on the prisoners. I witnessed as the dogs tore away pieces of human flesh. Plagge took part in the nightly Sonderaktions [special actions], from which he came back in the morning, drunk, and came to our kitchen to wash, freshen up and eat something. The prisoners working in Sonderkommandos [special units] said that Plagge was involved in such actions.
At this the report was concluded and signed after reading.