On 15 September 1947 in Kraków, acting judge, Trainee Judge Franciszek Wesely, delegated to the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, acting 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) on the Main Commission and District Commissions for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, in conjunction with articles 254, 106, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, heard the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Kazimierz Kumala |
| Date and place of birth | 22 April 1909 in Kraków |
| Parents’ names | Ludwik and Stefania |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | director of the financial department in the Centrala Produktów Naftowych [fuel depot] in Katowice |
| Place of residence | Katowice, Różana Street 4, flat 2 |
| Criminal record | none |
On 26 June 1941, I was transferred to KL Auschwitz I from Montelupich prison and I received camp number 17374. I stayed in Auschwitz until the end of October 1944, after which I was transferred to KL Oranienburg.
After arriving in Auschwitz I was placed on block 11 for lack of space and stayed there for two nights. There were about a hundred people in the cell in which I was imprisoned (two or three people slept on each bed). In order to get us out of or into the cell more quickly, the SS men or else German criminal prisoners set the dogs on us, and they often tore into the prisoners. Due to the passage of time, I don’t recall any names of the SS men working in block 11 during this period.
Then I was transferred to block 8 and I was employed in the Rollwagen kommando. The work consisted of carting construction materials, with prisoners pulling the loaded wagons with a Vorarbeiter [foreman] – a German criminal – forcing them to pull the wagon with a stick, although the wagon was often overloaded.
Sometime in October 1941, I was transferred to the insulators’ kommando, and after about two months to the fitters’ kommando. At that time, I met Lagerführer [head of the camp] Hans Aumeier, whom I recognize in the photograph I have been shown (a photo of Hans Aumeier was shown). He was commonly known as “Łokietek” [Elbow-high] because he was so short. Aumeier was the terror of the prisoners because he was unpredictable and punched the prisoners for no reason, or beat them all over the body with a crop, and his specialty was kicking the ankles. Such abuse of prisoners was the order of the day and I was a witness to such episodes very often. Aumeier was always present at public executions and selections, but his participation in the selections was decisive – [Aumeier] pointed out the prisoners that he had destined for extermination. During his time, some Poles from Silesia were brought over to the crematorium in Stammlager I [parent camp] together with their children and gassed there. Sometimes while passing by the crematorium in Auschwitz I, I saw the transports waiting inside the crematorium for gassing, and once I saw through a crack in the gate among a group of people destined for gassing, a four-year-old child, standing barefoot in the snow and jumping from foot to foot in the cold.
I only knew Max Grabner by sight and I recognize him in the photograph I have been shown (the witness was shown a photograph of Grabner). He was the terror of all the prisoners, because he decided about their life and death. He always assisted in public executions and selections, but I don’t know the details of his activities from my own experience.
From the time of my stay in Auschwitz, I also know Heinrich Josten. He was a cold and malicious SS man and he liked to harass the prisoners by reporting them. I also often saw Josten punch the prisoners in the face.
I recognize Kurt Müller in the photograph I have been shown. He was called the “Pastor”, because he was calm, but nevertheless [he was] a real slave-driver, and I often saw him punch the prisoners. During a certain public execution, when the noose of a Czech prisoner broke while hanging, Müller spontaneously ran to the guardhouse for a spare. In the meantime, however, this prisoner had been taken away to block 11.
I also recognize Johann Becker in the photo I have been shown. He was the head of the sewer kommando. Initially, he was rigorous in his service and he used to beat the prisoners, but later on, from around 1943, he changed and was even considered by the prisoners as a “decent” SS man.
Hans Aumeier can be characterized by the following event, which took place in the summer of 1942. Namely, when I was sent to the so-called Schreibstube [administrative office] and I stood in front of one of the offices in the corridor, Aumeier came up to me with a revolver in his hand, put it to my chest and asked: “Shall I shoot you?”. I replied: “Jawohl” [“Yes, Sir!”], because only such an answer could be given to every question. Aumeier was in a good mood, laughed and replied: “Not yet”.
I can’t say anything about other members of the SS staff mentioned in the list, because mainly I don’t know them.
At this the hearing and the report were concluded, read out and signed.